Huge awards, such as this one, are behind the current high price of medical care. This one is just going to make my medical care cost that much more. The child may need additional medical attention in the future, but I do not believe it will cost anywhere near $55 Million. This couple and their attorney are just plain greedy.
Huh!, Without knowing more about the case that was reported, i.e., just how badly harmed the child was, how much it will cost to care for him, whether his disability will likely impact his life expectancy – or if he is expected to live a “normal” 80 years or so, the emotional toll and life-changing effect on the parents of having a severely impaired child, among others, this award that sounds “huge,” may be appropriate, or even too little. To blame the “current high price of medical care [in the US]” on the relatively rare “huge” jury verdicts that are awarded, is, in my opinion, narrow-minded.
There is a March 4, 2013 Special Report issue of Time Magazine that offers another perspective on why the cost of health care in this country is so high. I am not endorsing this report as being 100% correct, but I submit that it offers another viewpoint. Without attempting to hit every point made in that article, a very brief summary is that it questions the “huge” profits made by so many so-called non-profit hospitals; 10,000% mark-ups on items such as acetaminophen to finance new medical facilities that rival the oil-fueled excesses found in Dubai, and salaries of CEO’s and other officers of non-profits being paid multiple of millions of dollars,etc.
Rather than blame the parents (and their lawyers) of this apparently severely disabled child, I am suggesting that perhaps the cause of our health care crisis is not so easily laid at the feet of those who have been harmed by that system, but rather that the run-away costs arise from within that very system.
Huge awards, such as this one, are behind the current high price of medical care. This one is just going to make my medical care cost that much more. The child may need additional medical attention in the future, but I do not believe it will cost anywhere near $55 Million. This couple and their attorney are just plain greedy.
Huh!, Without knowing more about the case that was reported, i.e., just how badly harmed the child was, how much it will cost to care for him, whether his disability will likely impact his life expectancy – or if he is expected to live a “normal” 80 years or so, the emotional toll and life-changing effect on the parents of having a severely impaired child, among others, this award that sounds “huge,” may be appropriate, or even too little. To blame the “current high price of medical care [in the US]” on the relatively rare “huge” jury verdicts that are awarded, is, in my opinion, narrow-minded.
There is a March 4, 2013 Special Report issue of Time Magazine that offers another perspective on why the cost of health care in this country is so high. I am not endorsing this report as being 100% correct, but I submit that it offers another viewpoint. Without attempting to hit every point made in that article, a very brief summary is that it questions the “huge” profits made by so many so-called non-profit hospitals; 10,000% mark-ups on items such as acetaminophen to finance new medical facilities that rival the oil-fueled excesses found in Dubai, and salaries of CEO’s and other officers of non-profits being paid multiple of millions of dollars,etc.
Rather than blame the parents (and their lawyers) of this apparently severely disabled child, I am suggesting that perhaps the cause of our health care crisis is not so easily laid at the feet of those who have been harmed by that system, but rather that the run-away costs arise from within that very system.