06 Jun 11
Originally posted by Scotty70Make doctors go bankrupt if they do something totally wrong. Take away their ability to practice medicine. Bad doctors will be taken out of the system, individuals will suffer without big payouts.
Malpractice insurance will always be necessary as there are bad doctors as well as good ones, and the public will always foot the bill for it, if not in higher insurance premiums then in higher taxes.
As long as you have malpractice insurance, you will always have the problem of passing on the expense to people who should not be punished.
06 Jun 11
Originally posted by EladarMaybe the solution to health care expenses is realizing that it actually costs a lot to get treatment and if you can't afford it, just like any other service, you do without it.
This wasn't meant to be a healthcare thread, but since its been brought up I'll give my solution:
Do away with everything but catastrophic insurance. Make the medical community lower its prices by forcing them to give us pricing that a person can actually pay. Third party payers do nothing more than artificially inflate pricing.
Do away with malpracti ...[text shortened]... o work under the rules the US works under today simply won't work no matter how you slice it.
Doctors already need to have great academic sucess, work longer hours than slaves and defer earning for a decade. They shouldn't just cut their prices because you feel like you are entitled to set prices for their services. As for eliminating malpractice insurance, it would just raise costs and limit services as no rational person would enter into any contract where they could earn a few bucks but if it went wrong they could lose their house and life savings.
06 Jun 11
Originally posted by quackquackYeah, doctors in the UK can barely make ends meet.
Maybe the solution to health care expenses is realizing that it actually costs a lot to get treatment and if you can't afford it, just like any other service, you do without it.
Doctors already need to have great academic sucess, work longer hours than slaves and defer earning for a decade. They shouldn't just cut their prices because you feel like ...[text shortened]... they could earn a few bucks but if it went wrong they could lose their house and life savings.
06 Jun 11
Originally posted by KazetNagorraI am not sure what you are saying but if you are suggestion Eldar should set their prices and they should have unlimited liability and be banned from buying insurance, I seriously disagree with that radical proposal.
Yeah, doctors in the UK can barely make ends meet.
06 Jun 11
Originally posted by quackquackThe UK government sets the salaries for doctors. Given that there is no shortage of new medical students I guess they don't mind too much.
I am not sure what you are saying but if you are suggestion Eldar should set their prices and they should have unlimited liability and be banned from buying insurance, I seriously disagree with that radical proposal.
06 Jun 11
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Originally posted by KazetNagorraPunitives are hardly ever awarded in medical malpractice suits in the US.
The problem with malpractise lawsuits is that is it possible to award punitive damages. Abolishing them (and replacing them with reparative damages only) will make the premiums for malpractise insurance much lower.
06 Jun 11
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Originally posted by EladarYou must have gone to a really, really crappy macroeconomics class. Or you weren't paying attention.
In a discussion with Kazz I was reminded of what my macro-economics teacher said to the class, taxes are not for raising money for the government, taxes are a way of managing an economy.
06 Jun 11
Originally posted by PalynkaThe guy used to work in the Reagan administration. It was a while back, I'd say about 1990.
You must have gone to a really, really crappy macroeconomics class. Or you weren't paying attention.
Seeing as the Republicans are not willing to raise taxes because it will have a negative effect on the economy, I'd say the idea is still in practice today.
06 Jun 11
Originally posted by EladarThe idea that taxation is not neutral for the economy is a far cry from the idea that the purpose of taxation is managing the economy.
The guy used to work in the Reagan administration. It was a while back, I'd say about 1990.
Seeing as the Republicans are not willing to raise taxes because it will have a negative effect on the economy, I'd say the idea is still in practice today.
06 Jun 11
Originally posted by KazetNagorraThis is from 2005 but it's a study using 13 years of data:
Really? Then why is the insurance so expensive?
Re-igniting the medical malpractice overhaul debate, a new study by Dartmouth College researchers suggests that huge jury awards and financial settlements for injured patients have not caused the explosive increase in doctors' insurance premiums.
The researchers said a more likely explanation for the escalation is that malpractice insurance companies have raised doctors' premiums to compensate for falling investment returns.
The Dartmouth economists studied actual payments made to patients between 1991 and 2003, the results of which were published yesterday in the journal Health Affairs. Some previous studies have examined jury awards, which often are reduced after trial to comply with doctors' insurance coverage maximums or because the plaintiff settles for less money to avoid an appeal. Researchers found that payments grew an average of 4 percent annually during the years covered by the study, or 52 percent overall since 1991, but only 1.6 percent a year since 2000. The increases are roughly equivalent to the overall rise in healthcare costs, said Amitabh Chandra, lead author and an assistant professor of economics at the New Hampshire college…
Meanwhile, malpractice insurance premiums for internists, general surgeons, and obstetricians have skyrocketed since 2000, jumping 20 to 25 percent in 2002 alone…
''It's not payments that's causing this," Chandra said. ''The simple explanation that comes to mind is the underwriting cycle. If they're making less money from the investment side of things, it's going to cause [insurance companies] to raise rates
http://www.makethemaccountable.com/myth/RisingCostOfMedicalMalpracticeInsurance.htm
Perhaps a simple answer is that doctors make a lot of money in the US and are willing to pay high premiums to protect their substantial assets. In virtually any field of medicine, errors can lead to catastrophic results.
06 Jun 11
Here's an interesting study from 2009 that concludes:
•Medical malpractice premiums are nearly the lowest they have been in 30 years.
•Medical malpractice claims are down 45 percent since 2000.
•Medical malpractice insurer profits are higher than the rest of the property casualty industry, which has been very profitable over the last five years.
•In states that have substantially limited consumers’ ability to go to court for medical malpractice, the insurance premiums for doctors are basically the same as in other states.
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This study suggests that medical malpractice is not a significant cause of skyrocketing health costs. In fact, medical malpractice claims constitute one-fifth of one percent of annual health care costs in the country, according to the report. Cutting costs through medical malpractice reform is not likely to result in significant savings in health care reform legislation.
http://savvyconsumer.wordpress.com/2009/08/13/new-study-finds-medical-malpractice-insurance-premiums-have-minimal-effect-on-health-care-costs/