[Rhodes22-list] Comment to Philidelphia Lawyer about medical costs

[Ben Cittadino]

Tootle;

I'll debate tort reform with you after the election if you really want to,
but for now be satisfied with the following article which tells the "other
side" of the story.  Anyone who reads your "position paper" may want a quick
answer. I don't agree with everything in this article but it's close enough
to give people the idea.
  
  
 
Who Wants To Become a Medical Malpractice Millionaire?
The Phony Tort Reform Crisis
 
by Ted Rall 
  
On a recent episode of "Fear Factor," two flat-tummied babes in hot pants
and jogging bras agreed to be locked into a glass coffin with 500 panicky
tarantulas--"we're adding crickets to keep the tarantulas active," the
show's host explained helpfully--as their boyfriends sawed a metal bar to
free them. At stake in this ordeal was the chance to proceed to the next of
eight elimination rounds, the survivors of which were promised one million
dollars. It's amazing what people will do for money. 

Still, there are limits. How much money would you require in order to
consent to having your leg chopped off? A finger? Would you agree to be
blinded for $1 million? $10 million? Would you let yourself be killed? After
all, you're going to die anyway. Wouldn't passing away painlessly, under
anesthesia, be worth the price if you believed that your family would become
wealthy as a result? 

If you're rational, you think these are crazy questions. Good health, a
sound body, life itself are all priceless. No amount of money can compensate
you for unnecessarily losing a function or body part. And that's what the
Bush Administration and its medical industry allies think too. Under their
proposed "tort reform" legislation, you'll receive virtually nothing if
you're butchered by a careless doctor. 

A jury can award two classes of damages to a victim of medical malpractice:
economic and punitive. Economic damages compensate a patient for future
wages lost as a result of a doctor's mistake; punitive awards account for
other victims who may not have sued, They also send a warning to other
doctors not to behave negligently. Bush wants to slap a limit on economic
damages, but with the average household earning about $40,000 a year, lost
wages tend to be relatively low. The current proposal focuses on the
punitive component because it comprises the biggest part of large damage
awards. Bush wants to limit punitive damages to $250,000. 

"This liability system, I'm telling you, is out of control," Bush says.
"Because the system is so unpredictable, there is a constant risk of being
hit by a massive jury award. It's costly for the doctors, it's costly for
small businesses, it's costly for hospitals, it is really costly for
patients." 

First it's Iraq. Then Social Security. Now more lies to create a phony torts
crisis. 

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office finds that the costs associated
with malpractice--buying insurance and paying out damage awards--amounts to
less than two percent of America's skyrocketing healthcare expenses. "Even a
reduction of 25 percent to 30 percent in malpractice costs would lower
healthcare costs by only about 0.4 percent to 0.5 percent, and the likely
effect on health insurance premiums would be comparably small," the CBO
determined. That's chump change--a mere five bucks out of the $900 I blow on
health insurance each month. 

Of course, there's an easy way for a doctor to avoid malpractice suits: do a
good job. Do no harm and you probably won't get sued. And the courts are
good at throwing out frivolous lawsuits before they become expensive. 

Contrary to corporate belief, patients don't undergo surgery in hope of
striking it rich as the result of some medical mishap. And victims rarely
sue. Those who do are desperate for justice and money to cover the
additional medical care necessitated by their doctor's incompetence. 

Consider, for example, the case of Yvonne Kimura, a 49-year-old pharmacist
from Fresno. Surgeons at the University of California, San Francisco Medical
Center operated on her to remove a benign tumor in her leg. At one point in
the operation they decided to cut a nerve without bothering to call in a
specialist to determine whether it was a motor or sensory nerve. Big
mistake. She can no longer move or feel her foot. She'll wear a brace the
rest of her life. A San Francisco jury awarded her $3.3 million in punitive
plus $286,000 in future wage loss and medical expenses. Would you trade
places with Ms. Kimura, even for $3.6 million? 

Like 26 other states, however, California already caps punitive damages at
$250,000. Mr. Kimura collected just $536,000, minus legal fees that may have
run as high as one third. To Republicans who believe she got what she
deserves: get in touch. I'll gladly smash one of your legs with a
sledgehammer for half a million bucks, but I get the TV rights. Operators
are standing by. 

Let's look at another example of "out of control" malpractice litigation. A
Durham, North Carolina woman who suffered a "horror show of medical
complications after her wisdom teeth were pulled" set the 2002 state record
for a jury award: $5 million. Her oral surgeon's slowness and clumsiness
caused her "nerve damage, a bad jaw joint and excruciating pain." She
required pain medicine so powerful that it caused her an impacted bowel
ailment, requiring the removal of two-thirds of her colon, a large part of
her small intestine and her reproductive organs. $5 million can't compensate
for the fact that she will never bear children. $500 million wouldn't get
close, but George W. Bush thinks $250,000 is more than sufficient. 

Or how about this one: On November 9, 1992, Maryland resident Valerie Shea
was (correctly) given an emergency Caesarean section at Anne Arundel Medical
Center. But after her son Patrick was delivered, he was still suffering from
fetal tachycardia, a condition which made his heart race at over 200 beats
per minute and turned his skin blue. He was suffocating. Her pediatrician
placed an oxygen mask on Patrick and put ice on his cheeks to revive him,
but mistakenly waited 56 minutes before sticking a breathing tube down his
throat. Finally, 80 minutes after the birth, the doctor took a nurse's
suggestion and administered the heart medication adenosine. Patrick lived.
But he suffered severe brain injuries during that crucial hour and 20
minutes. With an IQ of 49, he is in special education and requires 24-hour
care. 

When he was nine years old, Patrick's parents sued the pediatrician and
hospital after a nurse who had witnessed the birth finally stepped forward
and told them what had happened. A jury handed them $1.4 million for the
child's future medical expenses, $3.5 million for his lost earning capacity
and $1.5 million for pain and suffering. 

"Every day, we worried, what will happen to him when we're gone," Patrick's
mom said after the verdict. "Now we don't have to worry." Seems like a fair
use of the insurance company's $6.4 million, not to mention my five bucks." 

  BEN C.
   
  
   
     


 


Tootle wrote:
> 
> “Health insurance costs as well as physician's malpractice premiums have
> NOTHING to do with lawsuits, and everything to do with insurance company
> mismanagement, poor investments, and the increase in healthcare needs
> caused by malpractice.”
> 
> This is the biggest lie since Lenin and crock of shit believed in.  It has
> everything to do with costs of medical care.
> 
> I spent 15 years working in a hospital.  I functioned as physicians extra
> hands. It was a charity hospital and as such was shielded by South
> Carolina to maximum tort awards for negligence.  
> 
> Medicine is an ‘Art’.  A Physician uses his education and experience to
> make medical judgments.  Occasionally there are screw ups.  Some of these
> screw ups result in severe injury and death.  Because of the total numbers
> of hospital procedures involved, these screw ups happen daily.  The
> reasons are many.  
> 
> The biggest reason is so called ‘human error’.  And this is where law
> suits arise.  And tort lawyers jump on these instances like hyenas on a
> dead zebra.  The costs of defending Hospitals, Medical Clinics, Doctors
> and other medical personal are outrageous.  These costs are thru putted to
> the patients, all the patients.
> 
> When I have time, or somewhere way back in the archives, I have answered
> the question as to why ‘mistakes’ occur.  For this post I will say the
> biggest reason why mistakes occur is the physical impossibility of
> providing 100% infallible medical care.  
> 
> The impossibility occurs because economic limitations. Economic resources,
> sometimes called ‘wealth’ are not unlimited. Because wealth is finite is
> the reason why ‘Marxism’ fails.  
> 
> Wealth is created by man working.  It is the value of his efforts.  It is
> not created my mandate of the Government.  If a person gets to keep the
> results of his efforts, he works more, harder.  If he gets his efforts
> confiscated then why work? 
> 
> This is a famous story that Ronald Reagan oft told.  It is important for
> intellectuals that seek to ‘spread the wealth’ need to comprehend yet fail
> to.  
> 
> Read and attempt to understand:
> 
> Red Hen 
> 
> A modern day little red hen may not sound like or appear to be a quotable
> authority on economics but then some authorities aren't worth quoting. 
> 
> About a year ago I imposed a little poetry on you. It was called "The
> Incredible Bread Machine" and made a lot of sense with reference to
> matters economic. You didn't object too much so having gotten away with it
> once I'm going to try again. This is a little treatise on basic economics
> called "The Modern little Red Hen." 
> 
> Once upon a time there was a little red hen who scratched about the
> barnyard until she uncovered some grains of wheat. She called her
> neighbors and said 'If we plant this wheat, we shall have bread to eat.
> Who will help me plant it?' 
> 
> "Not I, " said the cow. 
> 
> "Not I," said the duck. 
> 
> "Not I," said the pig. 
> 
> "Not I," said the goose. 
> 
> "Then I will," said the little red hen. And she did. The wheat grew tall
> and ripened into golden grain. "Who will help me reap my wheat?" asked the
> little red hen. 
> 
> "Not I," said the duck. 
> 
> "Out of my classification," said the pig. 
> 
> "I'd lose my seniority," said the cow. 
> 
> "I'd lose my unemployment compensation," said the goose. 
> 
> "Then I will," said the little red hen, and she did. 
> 
> At last the time came to bake the bread. "Who will help me bake bread?"
> asked the little red hen. 
> 
> "That would be overtime for me," said the cow. 
> 
> "I'd lose my welfare benefits," said the duck. 
> 
> "I'm a dropout and never learned how," said the pig. 
> 
> "If I'm to be the only helper, that's discrimination," said the goose. 
> 
> "Then I will," said the little red hen. 
> 
> She baked five loaves and held them up for the neighbors to see. 
> 
> They all wanted some and, in fact, demanded a share. But the little red
> hen said, "No, I can eat the five loaves myself." 
> 
> "Excess profits," cried the cow. 
> 
> "Capitalist leech," screamed the duck. 
> 
> "I demand equal rights," yelled the goose. 
> 
> And the pig just grunted. 
> 
> And they painted "unfair" picket signs and marched round and around the
> little red hen shouting obscenities. 
> 
> When the government agent came, he said to the little red hen, "You must
> not be greedy." 
> 
> "But I earned the bread," said the little red hen. 
> 
> "Exactly," said the agent. "That's the wonderful free enterprise system.
> Anyone in the barnyard can earn as much as he wants. But under our modern
> government regulations productive workers must divide their products with
> the idle." 
> 
> And they lived happily ever after, including the little red hen, who
> smiled and clucked, "I am grateful, I am grateful." But her neighbors
> wondered why she never again baked any more bread.
> 
> From Ronald Reagan...  Reagan In His Own Voice (Audio book/download) ^ |
> November 1976 | Ronald Reagan 
> 
> 
> While this story is called 'Red Hen', there is an analogus story about a
> baker and loaves of bread.  
> 
> This story explains the 'Ukrainian Holodomor'.  Luckly my Grandparents
> were here not there.  Thru relatives and friends, I got the story and the
> reason it occurred.  The reason can be explained by 'Marxism' and
> 'Government Control'.  
> 
> Ed K
> 
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 

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