I believe SGLI is $250,000 and other survivors benefits are available for servicepeople, service related disability benefits are also available. These all come together to form kind of a military version of workers comp. I’m not saying that $250,000 is the value of anyone’s life but in the civilian world, unless that person obtains their own insurace the only source of restitution is generally through the courts. I do believe that medical personnel should be disciplined and held accountable for negligence, and I belive they are,just a the common soldier is exposured to military charges for dereliction of duty. Our military is being gradually turned into a social experiment that is detracting from their intended mission of national defense.
Non-battle casualties must have some form of financial recovery, but it should be capped and lawyer fees severly restricted. As to the medical facilities and staff, there must be greater and more qualifies oversite: For the quality of patient care, for the qualifications of the medical and administrative staff as well as members of the hospital support staff. These positions must not be lower paid ~ sit in an office people ~ they must be well paid; well qualified; floor walking eyes-for-the-patients! They must given access and able to hold people accountable for their actions. These patients put themselves in harms way that we may live in peace and prosperity ~ they deserve the best regardless of how our screwed up government has entrenched our nation debt!
What exactly do Liberals want, lower healthcare costs, or more blood money sucking attorneys? You can not have both!
We need to attack the cause of higher healthcare expenses and stop only attacking the doctors and insurance carriers, both health and now malpractice carriers. The root causes are too numerous to list but here is my list, I have come up with.
The only way we will benefit from Healthcare Reform is if we have no sacred cows.
1. Doctors can not make a million dollars a year, Lets subsidize their education rather than their salary. They need fee schedules. They should not be able to own rehab and testing labs where they send us for test to prove something they already know. Why do we have to pay one doctor to get a referral to another doctor? That’s crazy. Give us a prescription that lasts for our life if we have a disease that requires we take medicine for life.
2. Insurance companies need standard policy forms like we have in personal auto and Homeowners policy. HO3 H05 HO8. etc. They also need an excess profit law where they must return a certain profit back if they make too much money. Establishing affordable premiums should be easy to develop, due to the law of large numbers and mortality tables and an extraordinary amount of statistical data available to actuaries. Carriers are entitled to a fair profit, key word fair when it comes to health insurance. I don’t care if the make a fortune on my car insurance I can always find someone to insure my car.
3. Pharmaceutical companies need to sell us their medicine for the same amount they sell to Canada and only make a certain profit margin after R & D.
4. Lawyers- We need to get them out of the business of sucking on society. We need National mandatory Tort reform for those blood sucking leaches.
5. Congressmen are not allowed to take any political contributions from any entity which is involved in heathcare. Insurance Companies, Lawyers, Doctors. Etc. You see what happened when Dodd and Frank got sweetheart deals from Countrywide and expounded how Freddie and Fannie were in great financial shape as federal regulaters were warning them about collapse . We all almost went broke. Oh by the way all congressmen and senators will be required to take whatever plan they establish for us and pay half the premium. While we are at it they have to forgo their current retirement plan of %100 percent of their annual salary and replace it with Social Security. But they shouldn’t worry; we as their employer will pay half of this benefit like our employers do for us. Welcome to being and American citizen.
6. Get Chiropractors out of healthcare. For goodness sakes my vet has more training than they do. News flash! They are not doctors..
7. Hospitals can’t charge $3000 for an emergency room visit. They should be paid by the hour and that does not include the waiting room. $15. Aspirin. Give me a break. If someone is going to die and believe me doctors know this, don’t keep me alive for 3 miserable days with life support so you can charge my insurance or my family 25k more.
8. Computerize our health records and allow us to send them to any doctor we want, whenever we want. Health insurers and any other entity including the government can not obtain them without our written consent every time they are retrieved. That does not mean we sign it or not get insurance. Doctors seem to think this will save a tremendous amount of money and be able to treat patients better. Oh well, they get it, if it saves us money.
9. All employers are required to pay half the health insurance premium for their employees, all employees will be required to pay the other half. This would lower cost due to the ones who have it now pay for the uninsured. We should be able to take our insurance with us when we leave an employer and the previous employers plan not affected regarding our claims, etc. No group rates based on age, everyone pays the same. That includes the poor or the rich. Healthcare is not a right it is a privilege remember no sacred cows and that includes us.
10. NO GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT AFTER THESE ITEMS ARE DONE. LETS SEE WHAT HAPPENS TO THE COST OF HEALTHCARE AND HEALTH INSURANCE AFTER THIS.
Ah, thats good copypasta. Seriously, I have seen this same speech over and over again, word for word, when this top is brought up.
1. Why shouldn’t doctors be allowed to become wealthy? Just subsidizing their education will not draw in enough people into the medical field. As for the “owning rehab” clinics, the rehab clinic will be better equiped to handle certain medical situations then others. And the reason why we “Have to pay one doctor to see another” is because the primary doctor can help determine if seeing the other doctor is warrented. The everyman does not have a medical degree and thus can not determine if their headache is just due to minor dehydration or something more dangerous.
2. So lets say one year an insurer makes an “excess profit” and then returns the profit. What happens when next year they lose twice that amount? If they double their rates, people will go shopping and they will lose MORE business, and eventually go under.
3. I do not know enough about the Canadian health care system and pricing to make an informed comment about it, yet.
4. We need lawyers. They are the backbone to a tort based socity. Ambulance chasers, THATS who needs to get out of our system.
5. I agree with this one. I’m not sure about the forfiting 100% of the retirement though, I have to think about the logistics of that one first.
6. I have not dealt with ciropractors to make an informed judgment on them.
7. I havent seen enough status to determine why hospitals charge as much as they do. I’m sure taking care of the uninsured and people who just do not pay their hospital bills play a huge part in it though. As for the life support comment, its very simple, just fill out a DNR. Many people (including myself) have not done this, and hospitals can not read minds to determine if you would want to be kept on life support or just fade away, so they have to err on the side of caution. Do you really think they WANT to keep vegetables on life support? No, thats a bed they could put someone else in.
8. Their are two issues I see with this. 1) You are trusting the government to be honest and not take a peak. When was the last time you had trust that the government was trustworthy? Plus there are always hackers out there. 2) If you are incompasitated and your next of kin does not know your medical history, and you have to sign for the doctor to get your medical records, how would they access it then?
9. Many small businesses would not be able to afford health insurance for all their employees, so they would have to let some go. Employees are free to look for an employer that DOES offer health insurance for them. As for everyone paying the same, that goes against most acuaritl stats. Wy should I pay the same as a alcholic smoker that has liver issues? And I have to disagree with you on healthcare not being a right. I am not one to call anything a right willy-nilly. When you are saying that healthcare is a privilege, you are then suggesting that some people deserve to live and others are not. You are indirectly playing god and killing people by saying “Person one, you get healthcare so you may live but person two, you do not fit our criteria (for you, this would be “you are not paying for insurance”) so you do not get healthcare”
Sarah, when you are the victim of a malpractice claim, like the poor SOB in the article who died because of clear medical negligence, when you are the victim of a corporation’s greed, you’ll be the first one to demand just compensation. Do you think that doctors and corporations will pay you what is just and due without your having to hire an attorney? When conservatives demand tort reform, they’re swatting at flies. Huge jury verdicts happen very very rarely and when they do happen, they get media attention. And remember, the verdicts are rendered after a jury of people like you and I get a chance to hear all the evidence. Believe me, the big corporations and doctors hire very competent lawyers to defend themselves. You can’t blame rising healthcare costs on trial lawyers. That’s a very very very small part of the problem. Except when you need one because you’ve been the victim of something tragic like this, then it’s not a problem at all.
As a military medic please allow me to add a different take.
First – military medicine is among the best in the world. Today, you have a better chance of surviving a bomb blast in Afghanistan than a major collision on a city freeway (documented).
Second – military medics are human and make mistakes. I doubt any provider woke up thinking “I’m going to kill someone today.”
Third – military docs do NOT earn what a civilian doc makes. They will not bring high-priced lawyers to a court room.
Fourth – medical costs are high for many reasons including lawsuits. A recent report found that over 85% of lawsuits in a state (Ohio I believe) were thrown out because there were no grounds. Trivial fact – a doctor practicing in a hospital can lose privileges to practice for a lawsuit that has no grounds. What does that mean? If a patient didn’t like a doctor’s bedside manner they can take the doctor to court, get it dismissed, and the doctor will still be punished.
Fifth – if you want to know who makes the medical decisions about your health, read the new healthcare bill. Along with adding a tax on the sale of your home (over the usual taxes, BTW) there is a provision to create a Czar and several $million to establish a smart-phone device that doctors will be required to use before treating a patient. The doctor can make his own decision and it will cost him $10K for a first offense, 30 days in jail for a second. Since the law is federal that 30-day sentence is a federal offense and he/she will lose their license. A bit more strict than what insurance companies do now. If you do not follow the insurance company’s re
My son Michael Fremer was killed at Fort Polk, La on 2/13/08 because of Army Negligence at the conclusion of a training exercise. The Army can not be held accountable because of the Feres Doctrine. This law needs to be changed. Why is the Army exempt from being held accountable for Negligence? Our young men and woman are risking their lives. This is how our country treats the soldiers and the families?
The Military uses the Feres Doctrine to cover up and protect themselves against Medical Malpractice in the Cases involving Dean Witt and Carmel Rodriguez. It also protects the Military in cases involving Marines being exposed to Toxic chemicals on US Bases on US soil. The Military is exempt from being held accountable on all of these matters. The Feres Doctrine needs to be overturned so the Military is held accountable.
My husband was a colonel in the Air Force. When he went to the flight surgery for rectal bleeding he was made fun of and told he had hemoroids and start acting like a man. He died of Colon cancer 2 1/2 years later leaving a two children and a widow. This was pre Military life insurance. We were left with nothing. Taking care of him drained every sent we had in the bank. Medical Care in the military can cost lives and put patients at death’s door. Without the threat that Military physicians, etc. are accountable, they reign omnipotent to kill again.
I think the issue of the battlefield injury being diminished is improtant. Either privatize off-battlefield military care, or set-up some type of rate system akin to worker’s comp.
When I was was years old (oh so long ago) I was secretary to the Chief of Hospital Services at Nellis AFB. One of my assigned duties was to take shorthand notes at the medical board meetings. At one of those meetings, the topic was about a second lieutenant nurse-anesthesiologist who also (as in this article) intubated a surgical patient into his esophagus rather than trachea, and the patient, of course, was brain dead by the end of the operation.
The Board voted to take no action, noting that it was a 65 year old retire who had already lived a good long life (!) and that there was no good to be attained by destroying the second leutenant’s career by disclosing his error.
I have carried the shock and horror of that medical malpractice along with the callous disregard for truth and honesty in the medical profession my whole life. I don’t trust them, I don’t trust them, I don’t trust them. Every time I think about what happened in that meeting that day, I feel dirty, as if I can never be clean again.
My father was in Easy Company, when he got out of the army, he became a mailman and had excellent benefits. When he became ill with leukemia, he refused to go to the VA hospital for treatment. And from what I am reading here, he was very wise not to do so. Something needs to be changed and the Feres Doctrine needs to be dissolved. Medical personnel need to be accountable for their actions, people are not disposable at the age of 65!
I take issue with the article when it says that medical malpractice negligence will go down if this is dissolved. To insinuate that the level of care is tied to the fear of a lawsuit is ridiculous.
I do feel like this doctrine has been severely abused, allowing it to be applied outside of the scope of the battlefield or conflict. Doctors who are merely practicing medicine in a military hospital should be subject to the same standards as any other physician in a normal hospital setting. http://www.equotemd.com/
This is a tough dilemma. The points and counter points all make sense given the Military setting. Perhaps a study should be done which simply compiles statistics from the last 5-10 years of Military versus non-military malpractice. If Military Malpractice is significantly higher then at least we know that something has to be attended to. If not maybe then the good for many may over shadow the good for the individual. Military personal join the force with their eyes open knowing that they make certain sacrifices that others do not and at the same time receive reciprocal benefits that others do not. By voluntarily accepting these conditions a certain level of assumption of the risk is taken but that doesn’t mean that all other measures, other than just adding medical malpractice rights, can’t and should be taken to improve medical care to our warriors.
@ Bruce Livingson: It is only now that information is being released regarding private, teaching and other muncipal hospitals with regard to the amount of malpractice and germ-sharing which has been occuring. The military often doesn’t admit its’ failings (for example, higher than average domestic violence rates or mistreatment of prisoners) until (like the Catholic Church) it is forced to do so through information which can be gathered. My own percepient information would be considered anecdotal; it was 32 years ago and all I have to prove it is my memory. NOTE: I am married to a retired SMSGt, a Viet-Nam vet was was a medic during his military career. I am not out to bash the military; however, like each and every government entity, it needs extreme scrutiny or else those who are not psychologically, ethically and morally suited to serve can create problems for us as a nation. And, if asked, I would have to agree that psychological, ethical and moral standards are extremely subjective ideas at best.
I believe SGLI is $250,000 and other survivors benefits are available for servicepeople, service related disability benefits are also available. These all come together to form kind of a military version of workers comp. I’m not saying that $250,000 is the value of anyone’s life but in the civilian world, unless that person obtains their own insurace the only source of restitution is generally through the courts. I do believe that medical personnel should be disciplined and held accountable for negligence, and I belive they are,just a the common soldier is exposured to military charges for dereliction of duty. Our military is being gradually turned into a social experiment that is detracting from their intended mission of national defense.
Non-battle casualties must have some form of financial recovery, but it should be capped and lawyer fees severly restricted. As to the medical facilities and staff, there must be greater and more qualifies oversite: For the quality of patient care, for the qualifications of the medical and administrative staff as well as members of the hospital support staff. These positions must not be lower paid ~ sit in an office people ~ they must be well paid; well qualified; floor walking eyes-for-the-patients! They must given access and able to hold people accountable for their actions. These patients put themselves in harms way that we may live in peace and prosperity ~ they deserve the best regardless of how our screwed up government has entrenched our nation debt!
What exactly do Liberals want, lower healthcare costs, or more blood money sucking attorneys? You can not have both!
We need to attack the cause of higher healthcare expenses and stop only attacking the doctors and insurance carriers, both health and now malpractice carriers. The root causes are too numerous to list but here is my list, I have come up with.
The only way we will benefit from Healthcare Reform is if we have no sacred cows.
1. Doctors can not make a million dollars a year, Lets subsidize their education rather than their salary. They need fee schedules. They should not be able to own rehab and testing labs where they send us for test to prove something they already know. Why do we have to pay one doctor to get a referral to another doctor? That’s crazy. Give us a prescription that lasts for our life if we have a disease that requires we take medicine for life.
2. Insurance companies need standard policy forms like we have in personal auto and Homeowners policy. HO3 H05 HO8. etc. They also need an excess profit law where they must return a certain profit back if they make too much money. Establishing affordable premiums should be easy to develop, due to the law of large numbers and mortality tables and an extraordinary amount of statistical data available to actuaries. Carriers are entitled to a fair profit, key word fair when it comes to health insurance. I don’t care if the make a fortune on my car insurance I can always find someone to insure my car.
3. Pharmaceutical companies need to sell us their medicine for the same amount they sell to Canada and only make a certain profit margin after R & D.
4. Lawyers- We need to get them out of the business of sucking on society. We need National mandatory Tort reform for those blood sucking leaches.
5. Congressmen are not allowed to take any political contributions from any entity which is involved in heathcare. Insurance Companies, Lawyers, Doctors. Etc. You see what happened when Dodd and Frank got sweetheart deals from Countrywide and expounded how Freddie and Fannie were in great financial shape as federal regulaters were warning them about collapse . We all almost went broke. Oh by the way all congressmen and senators will be required to take whatever plan they establish for us and pay half the premium. While we are at it they have to forgo their current retirement plan of %100 percent of their annual salary and replace it with Social Security. But they shouldn’t worry; we as their employer will pay half of this benefit like our employers do for us. Welcome to being and American citizen.
6. Get Chiropractors out of healthcare. For goodness sakes my vet has more training than they do. News flash! They are not doctors..
7. Hospitals can’t charge $3000 for an emergency room visit. They should be paid by the hour and that does not include the waiting room. $15. Aspirin. Give me a break. If someone is going to die and believe me doctors know this, don’t keep me alive for 3 miserable days with life support so you can charge my insurance or my family 25k more.
8. Computerize our health records and allow us to send them to any doctor we want, whenever we want. Health insurers and any other entity including the government can not obtain them without our written consent every time they are retrieved. That does not mean we sign it or not get insurance. Doctors seem to think this will save a tremendous amount of money and be able to treat patients better. Oh well, they get it, if it saves us money.
9. All employers are required to pay half the health insurance premium for their employees, all employees will be required to pay the other half. This would lower cost due to the ones who have it now pay for the uninsured. We should be able to take our insurance with us when we leave an employer and the previous employers plan not affected regarding our claims, etc. No group rates based on age, everyone pays the same. That includes the poor or the rich. Healthcare is not a right it is a privilege remember no sacred cows and that includes us.
10. NO GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT AFTER THESE ITEMS ARE DONE. LETS SEE WHAT HAPPENS TO THE COST OF HEALTHCARE AND HEALTH INSURANCE AFTER THIS.
Ah, thats good copypasta. Seriously, I have seen this same speech over and over again, word for word, when this top is brought up.
1. Why shouldn’t doctors be allowed to become wealthy? Just subsidizing their education will not draw in enough people into the medical field. As for the “owning rehab” clinics, the rehab clinic will be better equiped to handle certain medical situations then others. And the reason why we “Have to pay one doctor to see another” is because the primary doctor can help determine if seeing the other doctor is warrented. The everyman does not have a medical degree and thus can not determine if their headache is just due to minor dehydration or something more dangerous.
2. So lets say one year an insurer makes an “excess profit” and then returns the profit. What happens when next year they lose twice that amount? If they double their rates, people will go shopping and they will lose MORE business, and eventually go under.
3. I do not know enough about the Canadian health care system and pricing to make an informed comment about it, yet.
4. We need lawyers. They are the backbone to a tort based socity. Ambulance chasers, THATS who needs to get out of our system.
5. I agree with this one. I’m not sure about the forfiting 100% of the retirement though, I have to think about the logistics of that one first.
6. I have not dealt with ciropractors to make an informed judgment on them.
7. I havent seen enough status to determine why hospitals charge as much as they do. I’m sure taking care of the uninsured and people who just do not pay their hospital bills play a huge part in it though. As for the life support comment, its very simple, just fill out a DNR. Many people (including myself) have not done this, and hospitals can not read minds to determine if you would want to be kept on life support or just fade away, so they have to err on the side of caution. Do you really think they WANT to keep vegetables on life support? No, thats a bed they could put someone else in.
8. Their are two issues I see with this. 1) You are trusting the government to be honest and not take a peak. When was the last time you had trust that the government was trustworthy? Plus there are always hackers out there. 2) If you are incompasitated and your next of kin does not know your medical history, and you have to sign for the doctor to get your medical records, how would they access it then?
9. Many small businesses would not be able to afford health insurance for all their employees, so they would have to let some go. Employees are free to look for an employer that DOES offer health insurance for them. As for everyone paying the same, that goes against most acuaritl stats. Wy should I pay the same as a alcholic smoker that has liver issues? And I have to disagree with you on healthcare not being a right. I am not one to call anything a right willy-nilly. When you are saying that healthcare is a privilege, you are then suggesting that some people deserve to live and others are not. You are indirectly playing god and killing people by saying “Person one, you get healthcare so you may live but person two, you do not fit our criteria (for you, this would be “you are not paying for insurance”) so you do not get healthcare”
Sarah, when you are the victim of a malpractice claim, like the poor SOB in the article who died because of clear medical negligence, when you are the victim of a corporation’s greed, you’ll be the first one to demand just compensation. Do you think that doctors and corporations will pay you what is just and due without your having to hire an attorney? When conservatives demand tort reform, they’re swatting at flies. Huge jury verdicts happen very very rarely and when they do happen, they get media attention. And remember, the verdicts are rendered after a jury of people like you and I get a chance to hear all the evidence. Believe me, the big corporations and doctors hire very competent lawyers to defend themselves. You can’t blame rising healthcare costs on trial lawyers. That’s a very very very small part of the problem. Except when you need one because you’ve been the victim of something tragic like this, then it’s not a problem at all.
As a military medic please allow me to add a different take.
First – military medicine is among the best in the world. Today, you have a better chance of surviving a bomb blast in Afghanistan than a major collision on a city freeway (documented).
Second – military medics are human and make mistakes. I doubt any provider woke up thinking “I’m going to kill someone today.”
Third – military docs do NOT earn what a civilian doc makes. They will not bring high-priced lawyers to a court room.
Fourth – medical costs are high for many reasons including lawsuits. A recent report found that over 85% of lawsuits in a state (Ohio I believe) were thrown out because there were no grounds. Trivial fact – a doctor practicing in a hospital can lose privileges to practice for a lawsuit that has no grounds. What does that mean? If a patient didn’t like a doctor’s bedside manner they can take the doctor to court, get it dismissed, and the doctor will still be punished.
Fifth – if you want to know who makes the medical decisions about your health, read the new healthcare bill. Along with adding a tax on the sale of your home (over the usual taxes, BTW) there is a provision to create a Czar and several $million to establish a smart-phone device that doctors will be required to use before treating a patient. The doctor can make his own decision and it will cost him $10K for a first offense, 30 days in jail for a second. Since the law is federal that 30-day sentence is a federal offense and he/she will lose their license. A bit more strict than what insurance companies do now. If you do not follow the insurance company’s re
My son Michael Fremer was killed at Fort Polk, La on 2/13/08 because of Army Negligence at the conclusion of a training exercise. The Army can not be held accountable because of the Feres Doctrine. This law needs to be changed. Why is the Army exempt from being held accountable for Negligence? Our young men and woman are risking their lives. This is how our country treats the soldiers and the families?
The Military uses the Feres Doctrine to cover up and protect themselves against Medical Malpractice in the Cases involving Dean Witt and Carmel Rodriguez. It also protects the Military in cases involving Marines being exposed to Toxic chemicals on US Bases on US soil. The Military is exempt from being held accountable on all of these matters. The Feres Doctrine needs to be overturned so the Military is held accountable.
My husband was a colonel in the Air Force. When he went to the flight surgery for rectal bleeding he was made fun of and told he had hemoroids and start acting like a man. He died of Colon cancer 2 1/2 years later leaving a two children and a widow. This was pre Military life insurance. We were left with nothing. Taking care of him drained every sent we had in the bank. Medical Care in the military can cost lives and put patients at death’s door. Without the threat that Military physicians, etc. are accountable, they reign omnipotent to kill again.
I think the issue of the battlefield injury being diminished is improtant. Either privatize off-battlefield military care, or set-up some type of rate system akin to worker’s comp.
When I was was years old (oh so long ago) I was secretary to the Chief of Hospital Services at Nellis AFB. One of my assigned duties was to take shorthand notes at the medical board meetings. At one of those meetings, the topic was about a second lieutenant nurse-anesthesiologist who also (as in this article) intubated a surgical patient into his esophagus rather than trachea, and the patient, of course, was brain dead by the end of the operation.
The Board voted to take no action, noting that it was a 65 year old retire who had already lived a good long life (!) and that there was no good to be attained by destroying the second leutenant’s career by disclosing his error.
I have carried the shock and horror of that medical malpractice along with the callous disregard for truth and honesty in the medical profession my whole life. I don’t trust them, I don’t trust them, I don’t trust them. Every time I think about what happened in that meeting that day, I feel dirty, as if I can never be clean again.
My father was in Easy Company, when he got out of the army, he became a mailman and had excellent benefits. When he became ill with leukemia, he refused to go to the VA hospital for treatment. And from what I am reading here, he was very wise not to do so. Something needs to be changed and the Feres Doctrine needs to be dissolved. Medical personnel need to be accountable for their actions, people are not disposable at the age of 65!
I take issue with the article when it says that medical malpractice negligence will go down if this is dissolved. To insinuate that the level of care is tied to the fear of a lawsuit is ridiculous.
I do feel like this doctrine has been severely abused, allowing it to be applied outside of the scope of the battlefield or conflict. Doctors who are merely practicing medicine in a military hospital should be subject to the same standards as any other physician in a normal hospital setting.
http://www.equotemd.com/
This is a tough dilemma. The points and counter points all make sense given the Military setting. Perhaps a study should be done which simply compiles statistics from the last 5-10 years of Military versus non-military malpractice. If Military Malpractice is significantly higher then at least we know that something has to be attended to. If not maybe then the good for many may over shadow the good for the individual. Military personal join the force with their eyes open knowing that they make certain sacrifices that others do not and at the same time receive reciprocal benefits that others do not. By voluntarily accepting these conditions a certain level of assumption of the risk is taken but that doesn’t mean that all other measures, other than just adding medical malpractice rights, can’t and should be taken to improve medical care to our warriors.
@ Bruce Livingson: It is only now that information is being released regarding private, teaching and other muncipal hospitals with regard to the amount of malpractice and germ-sharing which has been occuring. The military often doesn’t admit its’ failings (for example, higher than average domestic violence rates or mistreatment of prisoners) until (like the Catholic Church) it is forced to do so through information which can be gathered. My own percepient information would be considered anecdotal; it was 32 years ago and all I have to prove it is my memory. NOTE: I am married to a retired SMSGt, a Viet-Nam vet was was a medic during his military career. I am not out to bash the military; however, like each and every government entity, it needs extreme scrutiny or else those who are not psychologically, ethically and morally suited to serve can create problems for us as a nation. And, if asked, I would have to agree that psychological, ethical and moral standards are extremely subjective ideas at best.