WE Blog

As the health care system becomes more stressed by under/non insured patients the ER will continue to be the ONLY medical care choice for those patients. The system is breaking, and a larger number of people who perviously had great health care benefits now have marginilized benefits. Employers of all sizes and shapes are feeling the pinch of increased costs and are looking for ways to reduce this cost. Many are reducing and eleminating coverage for their employees.

What is their choice but the ER?

Of the 19 leading industrialized countries, this country is listed last in avoidable deaths. Cause? Lack of affordable health insurance. Be happy you got a doctor and insurance.

How come the other countries can do health care better and cheaper than this one? Simple: they care about their people. This country cares about the health of the business community.

econ,

Silly question, but I’m curious. Who pays for the specialty sugeries of foreigners? Is it out of their own pocket?

And another, but more for everyone. Have no citizens of the U.S. ever gone abroad for same?

“stumper
Bull to your last post.

We have the best health care system in the world.

That is why people come here, when they need specialty surgery.”

Try reading instead of guessing.

http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Aug11/0,4670,LifeExpectancy,00.html

http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html

http://www.photius.com/rankings/world_health_systems.html

We are the most expensive, not the best by a long shot.

Sticking to the article, physician/GPMD shortages are a world wide problem, universal insurance coverage or not. Partly to blame is money because bright young folks a can now make a lot more money elsewhere and the return of invested time on general practice looks pale. Women comprise about 55% of the grads under 35 and their priorites are not what the ole’ family doc’s were and their “significant other” isnt’ a spouse dedicated to the her and the kids, but probably has a good paying job as well. This also reflects the places where they will set up practice for their husband’s career must be taken into consideration. I know of instances where they take years off practice to stay at home for the kids, expecially during the critial years in child rearing and I got no porblem with that. It’s a glitch worldwide, except it seems in what was the former Soviet Union, where general practice has a long history of a plurality of female GPs, so the trends of the West seemingly haven’t yet caught up with them. Southern (backward?)Europe seems to have no shortage of GPMDs either.

How many have noticed that the GP of yesterday, now called the Family Practice physician, is a clearing house? Due to insurance making too many decisions that were in the past left to physicians, they don’t stick their neck out very far. They refer. And, maybe the doctor you are referred to also refers. Who administers the overall picture? YOU! If you don’t keep track of the advise, the medications, the possible contradictions, NOBODY does! We pay the highest of costs for the poorest of care! Something has got to give folks!

The first change I want to see is that my doctor who sees me, knows me, examines me gets to make the decisions about my health care – NOT the insurance company!

Oh, I can hear Paul the insurance salesman now. And its true, I can have whatever health care I want as long as I pay the total HIGH cost. If I want to stay within whatever my insurance covers, the insurance company, who has never seen me, makes the decisions!

Stumper, Perhaps it is just easier to get health care to a smaller geography and denser, affulent population. Some stats may be outdated and the difference between 1st and 40th place can be so small as not to really matter. It sort of reminds me of a .350 batting average being hailed as the best but forgetting the .300 hitter who always comes though in the clutch, your real “go to” guy. Who would you sign? The US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand may be behind Saudi Arabia, Columbia etc., in the ratings, but what the hell does that mean? Not much I think…..

I’ve had the joy of spending time with a Canadian over the past year. It has been a learning experience. This woman did her undergraduate work at The University of Calgary where she graduated in 2002, she completed her PhD from Harvard in 2006. Wonderful and interesting woman who accepted a post-doc fellowship at the Salk Institute in San Diego. She has been a guest in my home and I hope next month to be a guest in her home.

She has great American insurance benefits but goes home for her health care when she can because the care is superior, the waiting shorter, the cost NOTHING.

America has the advantage of looking at many countries health care plans and taking the best of what is proven to be the best to form ours.

Don’t listen to the Max’s who want what will be and are afraid it will come under the next president and Congress — a Democratic majority all the way around. Good things are coming for Americans!

My best “doctor” is the P.A. who works for my doctor.

Max, ;-)

As usual, good points Linda.

“The first change I want to see is that my doctor who sees me, knows me, examines me gets to make the decisions about my health care – NOT the insurance company!”

An MCO (managed care organization) has a fundamental conflict of interest in working with me. I want care that will help me, they want to save resources.

I also blame Bill Clinton, for the current mess we now have. He caved to corporate interests, and despite the paranoid ramblings of Max, you can bet Hillary will, too.

“Sometimes progress is measured in small steps.”
Steven Davis

Stumper: The stats are 10 yrs. old and I guess one can pull what they want to augment their point of view, which we all may be guilty of but my observations suit my opinion so it will be tough for me to move off them. Max: I agree, you should not let anyone tell you how to vote, or manager your health insurance, be it Canadian or any other foreigner.

So, Paul Rossell, when a doctor or hospital screws up and kills or maims a patient, are you of the opinion that they should just suck it up and let bygones be bygones?

You may want to remember that any monetary damages that Edwards got for his clients were awarded to them by a jury of everyday day people, just like you and me.

Or do you feel that doctors should be exempt from malpractice suits?

In the late eighties, I was told that a lump I had on my chest wall was just a cyst and nothing to be worried about. Ten years later another doctor insisted that it be removed immediately because it appeared to be cancerous. Fortunately, it was benign, but it could have been much worse.

Should I have sued? I didn’t because I ultimately suffered no lasting harm, but I can assure you that while I was laying on that gurney awaiting surgery, I wasn’t too damned happy about the doctor that told me “not too worry, leave it be.”

Just out of curiousity, Mr. Rossell, is your opinion of trial lawyers colored by your profession as an insurance salesperson?

Just asking.

Oh you say I forgot SS/Medicare for the $15k married couple.

Ok, that’s $1147.50 per year. But I also forgot the $2,000 in child credits and $2,000 in daycare credits.

So the net moves from -$4,000 to -$6,852.50 tax that would be paid back to this couple from the Federal Government.

So the $15k couple make roughly $21k.

The $46k couple make roughly $30k.

Almost perfect Socialism for y’all.

“Stumper” –

You’re right, of course. And “Econ101″ is wrong, as usual.

And it points to the central flaw of the for-profit healthcare system in America. Healthcare is simply *not* a market-driven enterprise. As much as “Econ101″ wants to force his lessons from Econ 101 into the equation, no one goes shopping for the cheapest surgeon when their kid gets appendictitis; no one negotiates for the cheapest Emergency Room after suffering injuries in a car accident.

As easy as it is to trot out people’s general dislike of attorneys, the bar is set high for medical malpractice cases.

A plaintiff must establish all four elements of the tort of negligence for a successful medical malpractice claim.

1) A duty was owed – a legal duty exists whenever a hospital or health care provider undertakes care or treatment of a patient.

2) A duty was breached — the provider failed to conform to the *relevant standard of care.*

3) The standard of care is proved by expert testimony or by obvious errors (the doctrine of res ipsa loquitor or ‘the thing speaks for itself’).

4) The breach caused an injury — The breach of duty was a proximate cause of the injury.
Damages — Without damages there is no basis for a claim, regardless of whether the medical provider was negligent.

The vast majority of large medical malpractice decisions and settlements come from the consequences of the injury; too often malpraactice results in increased medical costs to the patient. And if there were universal care available to those patients, there’d be no or mitigated *injury* suffered my the patient/plaintiff.

If, for example, comprehensive healthcare provided lifetime support for a child damaged by malpractice, a private (for-profit, btw) insurance company would not have to be sued for a lump-sum award to that child’s family for the projected life of that child. In other words, guaranteed healthcare coverage would mitigate the *injury* that’s currently an essential factor in malpractice tort law.