CJ, I know many people in the health care industry, including doctors young and old (mostly young).
Bad, overworked doctors are certainly a problem in the industry, and the AMA should be more vigorous in enforcing its own professional standards. (I love how just three years ago, they limited the work week of medical residents to "just" 80 hours. Wow.)
But I don't buy the logic that just because malpractice lawsuits may be a patient's only recourse, it should not be subject to reform.
After all, look at the motives of the trial lawyer. It isn't to fix the medical practice. Instead, it's to get as much money for themselves and their clients. The idea is to scare doctors into doing a better job, but like you said, doctors are already under tons of pressure. Then you add malpractice on top of that and tell them, "You don't like it? Tough. You're a doctor, you must be rich, you learn to handle it."
It's no wonder the net effect of malpractice lawsuits is the opposite of what its defenders claim. Instead of helping the medical practice, they hurt it.
Tenchusatsu
P.S. - Like I said before, it doesn't matter to me what percentage of malpractice lawsuits actually win. The ones that do win have such high payouts that obviously it's going to attract many more lawsuits, most without merit. Filing a lawsuit is as easy as walking off a cliff. |
