If we dialed back litigation to 1970 levels, would we see affordable health care?

[ingel]

My wife's doctors all say that a huge percentage of their income goes to malpractice insurance. Some say as much as 50%. My doctor clients tend to agree.

If we cut back on litigation and the giant cash awards could we avoid socializing medicine?

If we set a limit on punitive and compensatory damages would it help?
Would limiting the law firm's split to 20% help?

[beacher]

50% I don't know about that can you provide a link, because my dad was a M.D. and he never talked about figures like that. In fact I remember he said his whole professional building paid 350K a year. I don't think that amounts to half their income I know personally my dad made more than that per year.

Besides that I see your point, but is it fair to limit someones compensation. Example a father and only income for a household goes in for a simple out surgery and dies cause of a mistake in treatment do you put a limit on how much he was worth to that family? There is all kinds of limits of punitive damages.

I live in vegas where some doctors reused needles to save money and people got infected with HIV how much do you think they should or shouldn't get know that there is still no definite cure?

[cuartio52]

Yes an it was affordable in the '70's

[cinnard]

Probably. It's a lot like oil speculation. Medical costs are inflated to cover for possible litigation.

[roche]

Yes 50% is for the dummies committing malpractice, because they kill people.
Have you had a pair of scissors left in your belly lately? Well some jerks do this. I just had a latex stitch taken out last week, after 5yrs. I find out allergies to latex is common? Go figure.

In my State it's limit to $250,000 according to one stupid attorney.
Another attorney told me Kaiser and other HMO's have arbitration clauses of $80,000 or matching funds...dummy.

Should a patient suffer because some doctor want to be a expert in medicine and not be proficient?
Let's roll the dice and play with their health physically. The stupid receptionist accidentally left another doctors health records in with mine.
I know if in my business if I drop the ball, they are on me like white on rice. So if they can't be good. Don't be a doctor. In Japan, you don't pay unless you are cured.

[hanan]

Since nobody is proposing we socialize medicine that should be easy to avoid.
Yes litigation and malpractice costs do impact the price of our healthcare but there are also a great many other factors that need to be addressed.
One is the nation's reliance on ineffective but expensive emergency care when early diagnosis and care or preventetive care would have been far cheaper and more effective.
So speak to your insurance company about why such measures are not covered before blaming lawyers.

[denzell]

I think the malpractice insurance is a big factor, but not the only factor. An ob/gyn I know said his insurance costs $100K per year. That cost gets passed on in the billing. So yes, restricting litigation would help.

I also think that mandating that healthcare payors be nonprofit organizations would help (get rid of that 12% profit margin and also reduce the insurance MARKETING costs that get added into your bill). Also banning direct to consumer drug advertising would help, by reducing the # of patients requesting pills they don't really need, plus drug companies spend billions per year on this, which gets added to the cost of drugs.

So would improvements in hospital/pharmacy IT infrastructure (medical records) - countries with more efficient healthcare systems have more modern IT infrastructure than the US does, by far. There are privacy issues here, though.

Reducing the number of uninsured patients would help...because they don't do preventive or health maintenance as much as insured patients do, so are more likely to end up in the ER or hospital when they do get sick. That could be achieved by making it illegal for insurers to deny coverage based on medical history in the private (non-employer) market...

Being more vigilant about illegals using the ER would help...having more doctors and clinics be cash-only would help...regulating the insurance industry to cut down on administrative costs related to reimbursement would help...allowing Medicare to negotiate with drug companies over prices would help...

Gaah! Is our health care system a mess, or what??

[emmanuil54]

Absolutely..There was a tie when employers had paid all the health care costs and the employees only paid a small deductible and that was it...now it's maze to try and figure out what to get how much to pay and which doctor.

[jerard]

Actually if you want to work with facts, the answer is no. In spite of the rhetoric, litigation is a very small part of health care costs -- What you often read is that tort reform will save 30-40% on malpractice premiums or that malpractice premiums have risen 100 or 200%. What you don't hear is, because this is a small part of the total cost, the savings would not be significant, saving only about one half of one percent according to a recent AARP study. The cost of health care has increased about 2100% since 1970. Obviously we need to be looking other things as well.