Coalition of Doctors Call on Kerry, Edwards to Support Med-Mal Reform

July 7, 2004

  • July 7, 2004 at 9:19 am
    Yolanda Gesswein says:
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    Do not insult our intelligence by saying that you oppose Kerry and Edwards because they don’t care about patient care….YOU OPPOSE THEM BECAUSE THEY WILL NOT IMMUNIZE THE MEDICAL PROFESSION FROM LIABILITY FOR THEIR ERRORS WHICH KILL, MAIM, AND DESTROY PEOPLES’ LIVES. Your public relations campaign will do what this administration has done effectively: LIE, LIE, AND LIE ENOUGH TIMES AND HOPEFULLY PEOPLE WILL NEVER QUESTION YOUR LIE.

  • July 7, 2004 at 3:19 am
    Carol Plowman says:
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    Why are these doctors so worried about trial lawyers. They should be working to eliminate the “bad” doctors and working with the insurance companies to keep costs down on meds, hospitalization, etc. They need to police their own before crying that someone else is running them out of business. Other bad doctors that are never even sanctioned are the biggest reason their insurance costs are going up.

  • July 8, 2004 at 9:10 am
    Hans Andersen says:
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    Since the start of the 20th century, life expectency in the US has gone up by about 30 years or about 3.5 months for every year that has passed. Yet the people mainly resposible for this, health care workers and drug companies are routinely demonized for the dual purposes of retention of political power and monetary gain.

    Then when doctors try to defend themselves, they get lectured by the likes of Yolanda and Carol. I’m not a health care worker nor is anyone in my family, caps are more likely to affect me negatively, if God forbid I one day have to sue (Yes Carol there are negligent doctors). But it’s so obvious that the rise in power of the tort bar has been bad for all of us, and must be reined in.

  • July 8, 2004 at 12:13 pm
    Reagan says:
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    Yolanda, did you cross the border legally?

    And Carol, stop being a guilty white woman.
    Move to Frnace if your politics are reflective of your ludicrous comment.

  • July 8, 2004 at 12:17 pm
    Compman says:
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    Carol, I do agree that there a bad doctors out there, just like bad lawyers, bad insurance agents, etc. But these are the minority.

    IF you looked at the facts before spewing your left wing BS, you would realize that John Edwards made his MILLIONS off the backs of the OB-GYN’s and their insurance companies by using PHONY UNSCIENTIC so called evidence and played the juries like a cheap fiddle. He won these awards stating that if the expectant mothers had been given C-sections, the kids would not have come back with CP. Well, wouldn’t ya know that a Harvard or Yale study concluded that C-sections did NOTHING to prevent CP and that is was congenital defect and that the C-sections put these mothers at more risk in the process. But did he ever cite this study, no!. IF he had told the TRUTH, he never would have won a case.

    What this country really needs is to have each jurors who have some common sense and quit awarding these ridiculous amounts of money for peoples own stupidy!. Once people learn that they have to be responsible for their own actions, maybe we can have a more prosperous future.

  • July 8, 2004 at 1:23 am
    Tim says:
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    Compman,

    Speaking of checking the facts, you made some pretty serious allegations in your post. Do you have any facts (links to reputable news reports on the Web, biographical info on Edwards, specific case names and citations, etc.) to back up your statements? If not, it’s hard for me to buy your arguments.

    Some plaintiffs abuse the tort system, as do their attorneys and some jurors. Some type of tort reform is necessary. However, some defendents deserve the large damages assessed against them. Wealthy defendent corporations have been known to abuse the system as well, by filing motions for no reason other than to delay the proceedings.

    So, how do we balance the rights of defendents against the rights of plaintiffs with legitimate complaints? Beats me. But not all trial lawyers are greedy bloodsuckers and not all insurance companies are coldhearted bureaucracies unwilling to part with a buck. It’s all more complicated than that, so please spare us the vitriol and contribute some informed argument to the debate.

  • July 8, 2004 at 1:46 am
    Compman says:
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    Tim, I always check my facts before putting forth such an accusation. I believe the link below can very well document my statement. The most interesting thing about this news story is it came out BEFORE Edwards was picked for the VP slot. I believe that would actually make this article much more credible. I still do not understand why so many people believe that wealth redistribution is necessary. My family did not grow up rich, in fact, my dad worked two jobs just so my mom could stay home and take care of the kids instead of putting us in daycare. I learned very early in life that if you want something, you need to EARN it. Not ask for a handout. I am not against helping the extremely needy when required and I do believe that some government programs do help, but our society has gotten so lazy and has the “poor me”, “I am a victim” attitude due to the fact that we have instilled the beliefs that there is some great entitlement, that our country is going down the crapper. If the majority of these entitlements were discontinued, it would force the truly unneedy to get off their butts, turn off Jerry Springer and get a job. So what if it is minimum wage to start? You have to start somewhere and with good work ethics, you can advance. Sorry Tim, I do not think this is vitriol, I believe it is common sense logic.

    http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=%5CPolitics%5Carchive%5C200401%5CPOL20040120a.html

  • July 8, 2004 at 2:50 am
    Jay Whealdon says:
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    I laughed when I read the headline of the article. Fat chance and a waste of time.

  • July 8, 2004 at 2:57 am
    Tim says:
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    Compman,

    Thanks for sending the link. I’ll take a look at it.

    Regarding wealth redistribution — what wealth redistribution? If wealth is going anywhere, it’s to the upper class. According to the White House’s budget documents (http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2005/pdf/hist.pdf), in 2004 the federal government will spend 21% of its budget on Social Security, 20% on national defense, 12% on Medicare, 9% on other health programs such as Medicaid, and 7% on interest on the debt. That makes up 69% of the budget. The other 31% is for everything else — justice, homeland security, education, parks, welfare, etc. In fact, welfare spending (non-Social Security retirement and disability, housing assistance, food & nutrition programs, and income security) makes up just 9% of the budget. It’s a myth that all our tax dollars are going to people who want handouts. Anyway, we as a country are paying only 78 cents in taxes for every dollar of spending. We’re borrowing the rest.

    Given the low percentage of the budget that goes to “welfare” and the large amount of tax relief the upper class has received the past few years, the rich have nothing to complain about. And by the way, a lot of people are working for minimum wage or maybe a little more — Walmart is the largest employer in the country. If these people are watching Jerry Springer, it’s because they can’t get 40 hours a week at their jobs. If there’s class warfare going on, it’s not the lower and middle classes that are winning.

    Now’s your chance to flame me as a bleeding heart liberal. :)

  • July 8, 2004 at 3:56 am
    Compman says:
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    Oh Tim, I am not the typical right wing fanatic you think I am. I really don’t think you are a bleeding heart liberal. You sound way too intelligent. I support many causes, but I am a very conservative person. I believe overall, our government spends too much money on ALL programs. It pains me to watch my hard earned dollars go into programs to see how many pickles have stems on them or how fast ketchup runs. If we are going to spend the money, at least do it on something good for everybody, like medical research or helping children with major medical problems. Maybe “wealth redistribution” was the wrong term. It implied stealing from the rich to give to the poor. I don’t promote stealing from any class of person to give to another. What this country needs is a good case of morals. Believe me, I am no saint, but I do know right from wrong.

  • July 9, 2004 at 1:00 am
    hardhart says:
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    DITTO from a dittohead.

  • October 6, 2004 at 6:36 am
    concerned says:
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    Carol is right.
    Docs should police their own. Simple way to do this: require us to, and outlaw medical lawsuits, period. I am a doc in a busy hospital and we, as a whole, spend a large percentage of time and money (healthcare dollars) practicing defensive medicine, in essence, thinking about how to avoid medicolegal issues. Diagnostically, America relies less on real medicine (scientific, reasonable decision-making), and instead orders lots of expensive tests, not because they are indicated or likely to reveal a diagnosis, but because, if it happens that the person is the 1 in 10000 who presents atypically, that we will get sued if we don’t find the problem because we didn’t do every test known to the profession. What’s worse is the real problem, when docs do their jobs correctly, caring for the patients and making good decisions, and they are still sued because some grieving person (rightly so for their loss) has access to a greedy and unethical lawyer (all too common, I’m afraid).
    One thing has been true since the beginning of human time: people die. We try to help people live good lives, but cannot save everyone all the time. The outlawing of medical lawsuits needs to happen soon, or you’ll find it a lot harder to find good care when doctors leave or retire, or decide not to enter at all the long hard road which is the profession. We may even become scarce because we’re doing a lot of legal CYA. Who will you turn to when your loved one is dying? A lawyer? I think not. You want a caring and intelligent physician.
    I am not supporting a ticket with two men like Kerry and Edwards. Incidentally, Edwards touched on the medical profession in the first debate, and throughout his wordy yet unsubstantial utterances, mentioned nothing about the crisis that we will be facing soon, in part because of medical lawsuits.
    Police our own, and do it well. I agree.



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