Malpractice Makes Perfect

[ConnDem]

Malpractice Makes Perfect
How the GOP milks a bogus doctors' insurance crisis
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Malpractice Makes Perfect
Washington Monthly - October 2003

When doctors across the country went on strike last year, the media widely bought their line that frivolous medical lawsuits were driving up the costs of malpractice insurance -- forcing some doctors out of business and steering others away from high-risk procedures. In fact, the strikes were an orchestrated charade, according to an in-depth investigation by Stephanie Mencimer in the October issue of the Washington Monthly. Mencimer reports that many of the doctors leading the protests have themselves made alarming numbers of medical errors and that rising malpractice insurance rates have little to do with lawsuits and have not led significant numbers of doctors to change locations or abandon the profession.

To read Malpractice Makes Perfect, click here:

<http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2003/0310.mencimer.html>

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. addicted to percodan and taking kickbacks while he operates on people

Then, like rape, blaming the victim.

The article is good but fails to mention one pertinent point and that is that when California passed prop 103 (the insurance reform initiative) rates went down across the board 8%. They challenged it in court and lost so the initiative held.
There needs to be a nationwide movement although I am certain it would not pass in some states...the benefit to a nationawide movement on the ballot is that it would probably alter the industry's behavior if they saw a mass movement coming down the pike.

I posted a thread in old DU that indicates medical related deaths are estimated to occur between 45,000 and 98,000 (est) times a year. The reason the figures are so varied is because it is difficult to tell if the cause was medical surgical or post surgical NOT due to the fact that it was unrelated...this was based on a large study that covered all the bases.

When Clinton first came to office, he recommended tracking and guidelines much like those proposed in the end of the article.

The INTERESTING aspect of that is that carriers ALREADY possess that information internally ...they use it to do their weighted studies in order to approve costs and necessities for procedures..so it isn't as though they would need to even spend a DIME to use it for malpractice issues.


Thankyou for posting this article :thumbsup:

[ConnDem]

2. Thanks for the thumbs up...

That is a good point - it would certainly have added to the article if the author was aware that as a result of Prop 103 the second largest medical malpractice insurer in California was ordered to lower a rate request by 36% - saving doctors $23 million in premiums.

It's unfortunate we don't see more of this type of article. Makes my job a lot easier...

Unfortunately, I have no hope that we'll see a concerted nationwide effort to battle this insidious effort anytime soon. The battles have shifted to the states. I understand that Bill Frist is about to drop another med mal bill on the deck in the senate. Round 2 (or 3 or 4 coming up).

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

3. Here are some of the threads from the old archives

You might wish to peruse them.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=12472&forum=DCForumID61&archive=

http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=1654&forum=DCForumID27&archive=

LOL! You are on this one! I didn't realize you had been here so long
http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=7321&forum=DCForumID38&archive=

http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=8969&forum=DCForumID38&archive=

http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=683&forum=DCForumID31

And here is the thread with the study I spoke of above:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=688&forum=DCForumID31