Quote:
Originally Posted by dmek25
i don't know how to handle the malpractice. I'm old school, and if a doctor screws me up, i want paid. thats why he gets to enjoy a 6 figure salary, the responsibility goes with it. now i agree, there are alot of frivolous lawsuits around, and they should be handled with common sense, and thrown out of court. but who gets trusted with that job? and crazycanuck, care to tell us how you like canadas health care system( thats govt run?)
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The AMA and the republicans have done a wonderful job making it appear as though there are too many frivolous lawsuits. I worked in a plaintiff's-side firm that did a lot of medmal work and I can tell you that attorneys rarely file frivolous medmal suits. Medmal suits are taken on a contingency basis, meaning that if the lawyer doesn't recover anything, the lawyer doesn't get paid. In fact, if the lawyer doesn't recover anything, the lawyer eats the cost of the suit (which can amount to literally hundreds of thousands of dollars). So, when lawyers agree to represent someone in a medmal case, they rarely do so without undergoing a thorough cost-benefit analysis that frivolous suits rarely pass.
I know the press is great at finding "frivolous" suits in court dockets. I know from firsthand experience, however, that they rarely understand what is going in a case. Moreover, they are newsworthy because they are unusual.
While OB-GYNs can get hit with huge judgments if they were negligent or reckless, they are also very, very highly paid. Moreover, who should bear the cost of the OB-GYN's negligence/recklessness? I don't think it's fair for the victims to have to simply "eat it." I also don't think taxpayers should have to "eat it." So, in my mind, the insurance carriers who the doctors are paying millions to should have to bear the cost.