The doctors loooove boosh..

[annabanana]

He's in front a bunch of folks in white coats. Are they really doctors? Or do they just play one on TV?

(I fantasize that they suddenly rush him and fit him with one of those jaunty "wrap-around" jackets)

[Webster Green]

1. They think the insurance companies will lower their rates....

If the lying chimp gets his way.

Bwahahahaha!

Chumps!

[JohnnyRingo]

13. Ohio has caps on med malpractice

Insurance has risen above the national average anyway.
They just invent a new excuse for the higher premiums.

[Dees]

16. * offers no evidence that premiums will be halved

by capping awards. My guess is that it will not lower premiums at all. Will * then be exposed for the corporate medical lobbyist and insurance shill that he is? What a joke.

[Deja Q]

23. In America, who needs proof? The populace just wants a feel-good message,

and when it gets a pile of shit thrown in their faces, they blindly accept it, lick their lips clean, and wait for the next volley.

Oh, anyone who thinks that this madhatter scheme of capping lawsuits will lower premiums is full of it. The insurance industry is replete with examples of how it does not do anything back to the people who have their insurance.

this article has more about the real problem at hand.

[mhr]

26. That's What The Doctors In Texas Thought - Funny, The Rates Went Up

After the malpractice damage awards were capped.

When will these people learn that malpractice insurance, like all insurance, costs what the insurance companies need to make up in their Wall Street investment losses and claims from the previous year.

You'd think that the average doctor would be brighter than a 20 Watt bulb.

Seems mental dimness abounds.

[rkc3]

2. Mr. Bush, now that you've had your physical, it's time for your mental.

Every time he brings up the fact that a state is endangered from runaway malpractice suits, another group steps up and points out the net gain of doctors in a given state.

IIRC, this visit to Illinois is in the worst county for malpractice cases in the country. He's told America that these cases are making it difficult to practice - yet Illinois has seen a net increase of 1,800 doctors in the past year.

Makes you wonder.

[tk2kewl]

3. dont you mean "they practice the love" with him?

:shrug:

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[annabanana]

5. I don't understand why it isn't obvious that Big Insurance is the

guilty party here... I mean, the Doctors write the checks jto the insurance companies, not the patient protection lawyers, right?

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[JohnnyRingo]

14. People do attemt to sue for frivolous reasons....

Finding a sympathetic jury is a whole 'nother ballgame.

[annabanana]

18. Are actuarial tables infallible scripture?

I'm not saying that there's no such thing as a frivolous lawsuit. I'm saying that they aren't the wolf in the woods here...

[ChairOne]

21. They're not the wolf.... everybody knows it....

... except johnnyringo, I suppose...

The Public Citizen report, along with numerous others, make this abundantly clear.

The problem is 2fold: (a) Doctors allowing other doctors to repeatedly make preventable errors, and (b) Incompetent and evil (re)insurance companies.

[Snellius]

22. My doctor has drug company ads all over his office

The clock on the wall reminds him to prescribe Nexium. The pen tells of the latest pain reliever from Merck. On his prescription pad. His neat new PDA. On his calendar. Advertising is everywhere. There are more drug salesmen courting favors in his waiting room than there are drug lobbyists standing outside a congressman's office.

[bryant69]

6. Probably not

I think that channelling thing has almost certainly been blown way out of porportion. It was a technique for getting the jury to consider the consequences of this Doctors failure to do his job properly; what's so wrong about that? Well if you lift out of that context it looks goofy.

Anyway Drs. are just like anybody else, they'd like to not be held responsible for their actions.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Bridget Burke]

7. Maybe those guys do.

But I know quite a few who don't. Struggling with HMO's & insurance companies for permission to treat patients does not make them happy.

However, the ones I know are too busy to get active politically. And NONE of them wear their white coats "off duty."

[Mika]

8. Not me!

And 90+% of the DDSs in my study groups abhor Herr Bush.

[daydreamer]

12. Thank God there are lawyers

Who can afford a frivolous lawsuit at $200 an hour?

[adigal]

10. Can't wait until doctors have nothing to fear,

only a measly 250K limit on any damages that are not economic...or that is what the Bushie said. We have seen how the pharmaceutical companies care about us. I'm sure many physicians care as much (no insult to the many, many good ones, but I have met some unfeeling you-know-whats.)

[JohnnyRingo]

11. $250,000 cap on "Non economic losses"

I guess it doesn't sound good to call it "Pain and suffering"

So if a quack removes your kidney intead of your tonsils.....
You get your money back for the operation....But quit whining

[Deja Q]

24. Exactly. We're a nation of commodities. Not people. Not life. That little

cretin is so full of his own diarrhea; which is why he can endlessly spew it out.

And 59 million people have no problems drinking it either.

And much good will drinking diarrhea do them in the long run.

[ChairOne]

15. Of course doctors love gdub.....

He's about to ensure that doctors will BY LAW not be accountable for their preventable errors - on the order of about 500,000 a year, if I recall correctly...

What's not to love?

And the government's own studies say that the effect of malpractice evasion on insurance rates will be slight.

It's perfectly well-known that the medical profession's REFUSAL to police itself, by sanctioning/removing bad doctors, is one of the 2 primary causes of high malpractice insurance rates. Evil/incompetent insurance companies are the other.

http://www.citizen.org/documents/MedMalBriefingBook08-09-04.pdf

[Bozita]

17. Didn't Texas pass med/mal reform under Bush's leadership?

How are the insurance rates in Texas today?

[MisterP]

19. sky-high

[Bozita]

20. Higher than the pre-reform days?

[Bridget Burke]

25. Yup. Premiums up 19%, 6 months after caps were enacted.

The nation's largest medical malpractice insurer, GE Medical Protective, has admitted that medical malpractice caps on damage awards and other limitations on recoveries for injured patients will not lower physicians' premiums.

The insurer's revelation was made to the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) in a regulatory filing obtained by FTCR. The revelation was contained in a document submitted by GE Medical Protective to explain why the insurer planned to raise physicians' premiums 19% a mere six months after Texas enacted caps on medical malpractice awards. In 2003, Texas lawmakers passed a $250,000 cap on non-economic damage compensation to victims of medical malpractice caps after Medical Protective and other insurers lobbied for the change.

www.consumerwatchdog.org/insurance/pr/pr004692.php3

The limits were passed in a special election. If the proposal had been on the November ballot, it probably would have lost. Ever since Bush was governor, all insurance rates in Texas have been rising steadily. Those of us lucky enough to have medical coverage at work have seen benefits decline & co-payments rise during the same period.

[mhr]

27. One Suspects That GE Medical Protective Has Probably Seen

Growing profits of late.

GE Stock - Low 30s in May - Recent close at 36.

Imagine that!