VEIN Magazine Fall 2009; Page 60 – 61 By: Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD, FACS Read the entire issue here: http://www.veindirectory.org/issues/v2i4.pdf Or view Dr. Segal’s article (only) using the link below: Download vein_mag_v2i4_58-59_tort_reform.pdf Download vein_mag_v2i4_58-59_tort_reform
The Constitution is, more than anything else, a set of limits placed upon our government. It is NOT carte-blanche for one citizen to damage another’s reputation.
Your plumber charges $150-$250 to come out in a work van and run a snake through your drain. You pay him, and are glad the sewer isn’t backing up anymore. But if the doctor charges $50-80 for a visit … he’s ripping you off?
Some may suggest that the passing of this patriarch of the Senate leaves the future of health care reform up in the air, but it seems far more likely that just the opposite is true.
The last aspect of waste may be the most important of them all. Risky behaviors like smoking, obesity and alcohol abuse costs nearly half a TRILLION dollars — a bit more than all the medical errors combined!
While going to the doctor’s office for a sore throat (strep, for example) would run about $70, the ER visit runs up $600-800 or more, and saps already thin resources.
“… these are all about crossing the “T”s and dotting the “I”s (AKA CYA) and have nothing directly to do with providing quality health care. Yet we’re spending nearly half a TRILLION dollars a year on it, unnecessarily.” “… maybe we should just accept that medicine, like the rest of life, is not perfect.”
Bluntly stated, doctors should be allowed to prescribe medicine as their knowledge and acceptable standards of practice dictate, not as legal threats demand.
We can all support prevention and wellness programs. Informed, motivated patients will create a healthier society and reduce the financial burden placed on the system. Likewise, proposals that address patient’s concerns over insurance portability and the elimination of pre-existing condition restrictions can find common ground on both sides of the aisle and in the doctor’s office.
Medical Justice CEO and Founder Dr. Jeff Segal will appear on CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight, Thursday night, August 6 at 7 pm (EDT). Dr. Segal is scheduled to debate a trial attorney on medical liability reform.
