A nervous attorney

[Rockntractor]

http://www.democraticunderground.com...136923#6136929

obliviously (621 posts) Fri Jul-24-09 01:06 AM
Original message
Health care savings we have not considered!
Here is something I have not heard addressed. When we get national health care about a third of lawyers will be out of work. You can’t sue the government and win very often and they won’t stand for costs that they have to pay because litigation has jacked up the price. This could save us billions of dollars but the lawyers will have to be retrained and employed in different areas!

John Q. Citizen (1000+ posts) Fri Jul-24-09 01:08 AM
Response to Original message
1. There is a good reason this hasn't been considered. I'll let it go at that.

What! It was just a question.

obliviously (621 posts) Fri Jul-24-09 01:10 AM
Response to Reply #1
2. That does not increase my knowledge any.

Inquiring minds want to know!

TexasObserver (1000+ posts) Fri Jul-24-09 03:41 AM
Response to Original message
19. That's entirely wrong, for many reasons.
First, less than one percent of health care costs relate to malpractice claims.

Second, a very small number of lawyers work on such cases.

Stop listening to Fox News or Rush for your information about trial lawyers and suits involving medical malpractice.

To who?

obliviously (621 posts) Fri Jul-24-09 07:21 PM
Response to Reply #19
31. I have no idea what rush and fox are selling
I'll leave that up to you to monitor. All I know is I'm glad something is finally being done about health care

obliviously (621 posts) Fri Jul-24-09 07:42 PM
Response to Reply #19
32. Do you have a link to your statistics
you are a wealth of information!

TexasObserver (1000+ posts) Fri Jul-24-09 04:38 PM
Response to Reply #28
29. I'm not one either (now), but I used to handle them.
Edited on Fri Jul-24-09 04:42 PM by TexasObserver
I did insurance defense for E&O for many years, defending doctors, hospitals, lawyers, accountants, engineers, and architects for malpractice claims. Defending med mal claims is by far the easiest of the E&O cases, because (1) their culture is one of hiding or fabricating evidence (much like police covering for each other), so things that should have been written down are not written down, and witnesses tend to cover for each other, (2) they often make their decisions in a moment, when they don't have time to think about other options, (3) of all those sued for malpractice, none takes it harder than a doctor and none thinks they are more entitled to vindication than a doctor, and (4) there are provisions to protect doctors that other professionals do not have.

I did it for about ten years, and found that the reason doctors get sued for malpractice is because doctors commit malpractice. On the plaintiff's side of the docket, I'd rather try any kind of case over a med mal. It's easier to get to the jury, and it's easier to win the jury. Some jurors think doctors are gods who cannot be questioned. The same jurors wouldn't think twice about hanging an attorney for malpractice.

No group complains more about being sued but has more protections under the law than doctors.

I would prefer a claims system that is much more streamlined, that doesn't require every plaintiff to get some high powered med mal attorney to get paid when they are the subject of med malpractice. There's a military man who recently lost both legs while under for gall bladder surgery because a resident nicked an artery in surgery, cutting off circulation to the legs. He woke up missing both legs after routine surgery for something else. He will not be recompensed for it as he should be. The law protects the surgeon who screwed up.

Truthfully, the whole med mal area is sickening, because on the defense side it is one chickenshit advantage after another, and on the plaintiff's side it is about getting cases with huge damages and exposure to liability by entities not protected by liability limits.

Thats why we are so irratable your a lawyer!

[marv]

Interesting point. I was thinking about what might happen to the malpractice liar...er...lawyers the other day. With government controlled health care, both the insurance companies and the lia...(there I go again)...lawyers will get hit.

[Teetop]

What a crock.

I remember reading about any lawyer suing, as a third party once Obama Care is in place, and getting paid for it. No matter what...

Talk about an attorney's dream come true. :eek:

edit to add; They would be suing the hospital or doctor, not the Feds.

[Rockntractor]

Interesting point. I was thinking about what might happen to the malpractice liar...er...lawyers the other day. With government controlled health care, both the insurance companies and the lia...(there I go again)...lawyers will get hit.

They didn't like that being posted at all. To many liberal dem lawyers.

[Rockntractor]

What a crock.

I remember reading about any lawyer suing, as a third party once Obama Care is in place, and getting paid for it. No matter what...

Talk about an attorney's dream come true. :eek:

Don't think for one moment they will get away with sueing Obamas monarchy. He ill stop that fast!

[noonwitch]

Interesting point. I was thinking about what might happen to the malpractice liar...er...lawyers the other day. With government controlled health care, both the insurance companies and the lia...(there I go again)...lawyers will get hit.

If a doctor is negligent or abusive in some way (like the freaks you hear about sometimes who molest women who are under anesthesia), he deserves to be sued.


But people sue for acts of nature. Your child has cerebral palsy-it may be due to an outside factor, it may be genetic. The tv lawyers here actually direct their advertising to parents of children with cp. There are too many meritless lawsuits that get filed, costing doctors and insurers more money to do business, which gets passed on to the rest of us-employers, employees, and so on.

There are of course other reasons why health care has gotten so expensive, but this is one that could be easily remedied by allowing and encouraging courts to make those who file meritless lawsuits pay large fines.