Quote:
Originally Posted by bossku69
most of this is because of the bullshit prices that doctors and medical offices have to pay for insurance.
my family doctor had to close up shop about 3 years ago because of medical malpractice insurance got to expensive. my parents super fat neighbor sued his surgeon twice because he said he botched his knee replacement. well if you weight 400+ pounds, you shouldnt be trying to play basketball.
sick how this country is setup sometimes. if i dont like what the doctor did or prescribed, i can sue and most likely win
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Actually, in most cases, you wouldn't win.
But unfortunately, the reason for that is that in the US, many doctors choose to practice "defensive medicine". That includes things like doing tests which are useless in a specific case merely because showing that you have done them comes in handy in a court case, or performing procedures which are utterly unnecessary but in court cases could be used as proof that the "highest possible standard of care" was delivered.
Here are two good pieces on it:
http://www.aaos.org/news/bulletin/ja.../clinical2.asp
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content...ct/293/21/2609
If you look at the stats reported in those articles, it's clear that incredible amounts of money are being thrown away to protect doctors from lawsuits.
Still, it definitely is only part of the problem.
Private insurance companies do play a large role in driving up costs. Just look at California, where their profits and administrative costs combined add up to more than $10 billion a year. (source:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/112837.php )
Also, keep in mind that they have a tendency to pass on costs to the taxpayer anyway, by refusing patients with pre-existing conditions and thus only taking the least costly customers.