I think focusing on malpractice insurance is ludicrous. It's hardly worth mentioning.

The economics of health care is unlike most other products or services in our country because of the value we place on our life and health. Supply drives demand and that's the biggest factor in rising costs by far. We spend more money on health care per capita than any other nation and we live longer because we are willing to pay for research and development and innovation.

In this area you can see the results of the polarization of wealth. The wealthy drive costs by expecting more and better care and the poor, (including illegal immigrants and 47 million American citizens too), drive costs because they require care and can't pay for it.

In addition, we're beginning to feel the pressure of the aging baby boomers.

Malpractice is a red herring.

I don't know if Edwards has a good plan or not but I completely understand why he isn't addressing malpractice litigation front and center.

It is natural - expected!, for costs to rise is such a situation.

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...the government...is caving in...with their specious arguments couched in the...language of civil rights law, and that the churches ... likewise crumbling to...rhetoric which is nothing but heretical sophistry -- ~F Phelps
Platitudes like the one you offer are no different - and no less incorrect - than the jackass part-time Christian who says, "I'm going to heaven because I'm nice to people." It so misses the point.~Impugn

I don't care what another country would do. I like to think that my country is a bit more compasionate than that. My morals would dicated to treat the person and then turn them over to the imigration authorities. But that's just me.

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Fortunatus sum! Pila mea de gramine horrido modo in pratum lene recta volvit!

When the cost of malpractice insurance drives OB/GYNs out of practice - which can be documented - then the supply goes down, and the price goes up.

When those who stay in practice must bring in $100,000 a year just to pay their insurance premiums, they have to get that money from someplace, right? Perhaps there are a handful who rob banks on the side, but I suspect most get that money by charging their patients more.

Matt

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De duobus malis, minus est semper eligendum

I'm not arguing the OBGYN/malpractice problem. I'm arguing its not material to overall health care cost increases.

By the way, it's not a problem at all to get an appointment with a Gynecologist. They just don't want to deliver babies any more. The OB part is what suffers from mal practice insurance availability. You don't make enough money delivering babies to face the risk of screwing it up.

Now, if you're a brain surgeon or an oncologist on the other hand, people expect your patients to wake up dead on occasion so it's much easier to defend yourself... I guess. That makes sense to me. We expect child birth to be relatively simple and we expect new borns and their mothers to be healthy afterward - much harder to explain how that gets screwed up I guess.

Also, you made an example a while ago that I chose to let pass without comment but I guess it wouldn't hurt to mention that doctors without malpractice insurance aren't likely to be made a target by greedy lawyers, rather, they put their livelihood on the line and that is seldom worth suing for unless the doctors screw up was particularly egregious and blatantly obvious.

So...there you have it, a free market solution, no mal practice insurance, no more law suits.

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...the government...is caving in...with their specious arguments couched in the...language of civil rights law, and that the churches ... likewise crumbling to...rhetoric which is nothing but heretical sophistry -- ~F Phelps
Platitudes like the one you offer are no different - and no less incorrect - than the jackass part-time Christian who says, "I'm going to heaven because I'm nice to people." It so misses the point.~Impugn

1- The U.S. already has the best health care in the world.
2 - What the left is really after is free health insurance, not better health care
3 - Neither insurance nor care are the job of the federal government to provide
4 - Edwards is the LAST person anyone should want having a hand in any health insureance issues!!

Has America forgotten? Edwards is part of the problem, not part of the solution. He is a chrlatan and huckster who has done more damage to the medical industry than any other single individual alive today.

His plan callsfor raising $120 BILLION dollars innew taxes from the people who give us our jobs and health insurance. I don't know about your boss, but mine isn't going to reach into his pocket to pay for this fiasco!

Check out www.FlushTheJohn2008.com for a collection of facts about Edwards that the main stream media will conveniently forget for the next 20 months.

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The web page John Edwards doesn't want you to see !

Flush The John 2008 www.FlushTheJohn2008.com

The solution to the healt care problem is quite simple:

1. Limit malpractice settlements to the proven lost wages of the victom. No more punative damages.

2. Stop providing costly emergency room care to those that cannot pay. They can be quietly euthanised out of site of the public.

3. Eliminate medicare and medicaid. Old and infirm people are no longer productive members of society anyway. The cost of providing coverage should be balanced with the future worth of the person recieving the care.

Actually, this would not stop the cost of health care from rising as it would simply cull the poor and inferm leaving the very top of the economic food chain to strive ever harder to prevent themselves from falling into that subset. This is what is driving prices actually, the wealthy.

__________________
...the government...is caving in...with their specious arguments couched in the...language of civil rights law, and that the churches ... likewise crumbling to...rhetoric which is nothing but heretical sophistry -- ~F Phelps
Platitudes like the one you offer are no different - and no less incorrect - than the jackass part-time Christian who says, "I'm going to heaven because I'm nice to people." It so misses the point.~Impugn

What ? So "compassionate" that we're dumb enough to continue leaving our borders open so every "poor" soul on Earth can crawl over here and do God knows what ? If they git a owweee, we better help 'em 'cause we're "compasionate" ?



Well, ok. THAT I can accept. No treatment without turning them over to immigration though. This is getting ridiculous. We don't know who is coming across our wide open borders for what. To assume that they will always be pleasant mexicans, who "just want to pick veggies and fruit for America" is plain stupid of us.

I don't recall suggesting anything other than facts I've researched. I certainly made no suggestion on what to do or not to do with illegals or non-paying ER arrivals. I guess since you're so anxious for suggestions, I'd suggest you supply some huge portion of your personal income for those things and you'll feel so much better up there on your high moral horse.

Exactly how often do you people get sick??

Your not going to hear about it from your news outlets (Because it involves a democrat.), but John Edwards bid for the presidency is toast.
His key staffers made extreme antichristian blogs so horrendous, that I refuse to repeat them.
The team pornographically degraded the pope and the Catholic church for its opposition to abortion and contraception “using extreme and offensive profanity” including the morning after pill for virgins that get pregnant by magic and even talking about Gods _______.
John Edwards refuses to fire them under threats from his own bloggers threatening to sabotage his campaign if he takes any action against his staffers…

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Only a liberal would know how hard it is to get a nicotine patch to stick to a monkey.

sources? Or is this one of your getting bored troll posts like the Obama thread you started?

Punitive damages are to teach the offender a lesson. If you stop punitive damages and just pay lost wages the companies will continue to offend so long as their profit margin remains good.

The beancounters would tell them: Yes, you will get an average of X lawsuits and you will lose...and you will only have to pay lost wages...thus your profit margin will still be 27%....

Whereas a 20 million dollar punitive damage award has the beancounters saying: You will lose X number of lawsuits, and it will only take 2 high awards to make ________ non-profitable...so change, NOW.

While I hate useless lawsuits, your strategy would ensure that people get killed, maimed, etc etc etc so long as a company can continue to profit after the lawsuits.

Punitive damages stop that from happening.



What?

You have to be joking. So if you had a father you loved but were unable to assist...you'd be happy watching him die a prolonged and painful death so that healthcare costs would recede for everyone else?

Completely insane.

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I'll disagree. It is the poor's receipt of state of the art healthcare that drives up costs. The 45 million uninsured are expecting and receiving the same level of coverage as the rest of us. The only problem is, they are not paying thier share, we are. In addition, without normal pre-emptive screenings, when they are found to have a problem the costs to correct are expondentially higher. Complete removal of these hangers-on will reduce our costs by 30% at least.

Keep in mind, in the US, with our completly fair and open economic system, those that do not have coverage have nobody to blame but themselves. Want health care? - get a better job! I'd love to drive a Ferrari, but I do not expect someone else to pay for it.