Uncle Fester wrote:
Xeq, combine the "right" to free emergency care with a highly legalistic society, and you have the recepie for major financial troubles.
The Dr's want to avoid being sued, so additional, and extra tests are ordered, people who should be sent home are kept in.
Worse, from a financial stand point, is the very terminal with no insurance, and no power of attorney, or unreasonable family. 5 years ago in my hospital we had a woman (89 years old) visiting from Trinidad on vacation, stroked, ended up in the ER, from there to the ICU, several MI's a second stroke, and she ended up trach'ed pegged, and no where to go. She was not a US Citizen, no insurance, and we could not legally turn her out. To make a long story short, 5 months latter a miracle deal was made and she was sent back to a Trinidad hospital where she died that week. My hospital got to eat a 3 million dollar loss, for all the procedures, months of ICU care, Dr's fee's. To save our budget we closed maternity...
Unfortunately, you would have to amend the Constitution to fix the litigation problem. It's inherent when you use a jury of 12 everymen to decide matters of fact. Especially when it comes to medical malpractice, where there is rarely proof malpractice did or did not occur, it just comes down to probability. The fact is a jury of people making on average $30,000 per year is not going to side with a person making $250,000+ per year against someone making $30k/year who is suffering from a debilitating medical problem unless there is no doubt at all. I have a friend who was on a jury in a malpractice case and she told me flat out that they ended up awarding the plaintiff money even though they though his case was bullshit because they felt sorry for him.
Didn't DFK say that indigent care only counts for 3-4 percent of medical costs, anyway?