Right. When there is a problem, the quickest way to find a solution to a problem is finding out what CASUES the problem. The question they need to ask themselves is “WHY are premiums going up?” But if they ask themselves that, they will see that its not because the insurance companies are greedy, its because the cost of healthcare has gone up dramaticly. And why has the cost of healthcare gone up dramaticly? Because everyone and their brother will sue a docter if he so much as looks at his paicent wrong. Congress is full of lawyers, so of course they are not going to change tort reform. it would just be easier to drive the insurance companies out of business.
Of course they don’t look at the trial attorneys, they own the Democratic party. MedMal is a huge cost of medical care in both hard dollars for the insurance cost and soft costs for extra tests and treatments. Some estimates are 30% of costs.
Congress and the executive branch have focused on mechanisms to pay for health care while the cost of health care keeps rising unabated. How loud must we shout before our representatives hear us? Address the COST of health care.
That’s not the cause! They need to do something about the drug companies who overcharge for everything and the doctors who are making out like bandits. I have an eye drop that, when it was a prescription, cost over $100 a bottle. It’s now OTC and is $14.95. What a rip off before it went OTC!
Brother, are you saying that malpractice insurance payouts for bad doctors is some how related to health insurance premiums? My son, has permanent nerve damage from a spinal tap he didn’t need (his WHOLE life was/is effected and mine & husbands too), but I was pressured into consenting to the procedure, without being advised of the risk of nerve damage and the result of nerve damage. Hell, I didn’t even know what a spinal tap was. He took a whole 60 seconds to state we needed it but were some unlikely side effects (the side effect my son suffered was not even mentioned). Only to find out he didn’t need it after all and what was wrong is that he had a virus, which was being determined at the same time I was being talked into allowing the spinal tap. I wish I could sue that doctor now.
Oh, Does Aetna or Anthem sell mal-practice insurance? Or are you saying the hospitals and doctors are charging more in order to pay for the mal practice insurance? They would be better off setting higher standards for their doctors and demanding better quality. Do this along with a hold harmless agreement with the patient for human error (not neglect) and problem is solved.
Nothing that comes out of Washington has any degree of honesty associated with it. This is a perfect example, and WHY isn’t the reporter asking questions about why costs have increased? I don’t like how much I have to pay for coverage either, but it’s MY decision, not Obama’s!
And how about asking how a Government run program layered on top of no meaningful cost containment could possibly be cheaper or run more efficiently? Think Post Office versus UPS/Fedex.
Just heard a snippet of an interview Wolf Blitzer did with David Axelrod. Wolf asked about changing the laws to allow sale of insurance policies natinwide instead of restricting by state, he said this will increase competition and lower cost. Axelrod said that is not part of the plan to reform healthcare and that the new healthcare cooperatives the Obama administration is proposing will do that, there’s no need to sell across state lines. He was somewhat taken aback that Wokf had the temerity to ask this. It must have deviated from the script. Yet in every pro reform speeech someone, often Obama brings up that some company has a monopoly in a state and this is driving costs up. Then fix it! Allow sale across the nation of the same policies for everyone. Get some real competition in there.
Health insurance premiums have gone faster than inflation because health care cost have gone up faster than inflation. Duh. How about layers fees. They have also gone up faster than inflation along with the taxes and the growth in government which has gone up faster than insurance premiums if you want to play that game. Don’t hear the liberals complaining about that do you. If taxes had not gone up so much people would have the money for health insurance. And what about Medicare. It also has gone up faster than the cost of living and the government already controls that! If they can cut half a bil from elderly care then why don’t they do it now. They do not need to revamp the system to do that. They won’t because they will have to ration health care to the elderly. PEOPLE WAKE UP. THEY LIE.
There are many things that drive the increasing cost of healthcare – state & federal benefit mandates, the state line issue, malpractice exposures requiring ‘cover your rump’ medical practices, limited (controlled) enrollment at medical colleges, etc. But, the biggest driver is the governments CURRENT involvement in the system. Medicare/Medicaid get away with paying a fraction of the true cost of providing care to doctors/hospitals. Those uncompensated costs are SHIFTED to the private paying market. Why do most doctors want to limit the # of medicare eligable patients they see? Because at those reimbursement rates THEY CAN’T PAY BACK THEIR RIDICULOUS COLLEGE LOANS, much less keep an office open! If you then say “well, the whole sytem should be government run then because that way the cost would go down”, ask yourself who in there right mind would incur all of that expense and go through (what amounts to) 12 years of school to make medicare wages and work 12 hour days. It certainly won’t be the best and the brightest!
THESE are the things that Obama and his socialist comrades can’t afford to say.
What was the % increase in the ‘government reimbursement rate’ over the same period in question. Don’t give me a $ figure, as we have an aging population.
Med Mal payouts ABSOLUTELY have something to do with the cost of health care.
Situation: Large payouts exist
Consequence:
1) Med Mal insurer rates must be adequate to cover the occasional large payout.
2) Greater incentive to file lawsuits following bad outcome of medical care, whether or not malpractice actually occurred.
3) Med Mal insurers incur more expenses doing their contractual duty to defend these lawsuits. Premiums must be adequate to cover these expenses.
4) to cover increased med mal premiums, medical care providers do the rational thing and pass these costs on to their customers. Since Medicare won’t pay a higher cost, it goes to privately insured and uninsured individuals.
5) To make the “big payout” less likely, doctors practice defensive medicine, taking more scans and tests than are really necessary — but it might come up in a trial. The costs to run these tests are passed on to the health insurers, which raises costs to the insurers and therefore health insurance premiums.
The whole of economics is “people respond to incentives.” There is no denying that the possibility of extreme malpractice awards contributes to the high cost of health care. The only argument is over the magnitude of the effect.
The government already has a model of their healthcare plan its called the Veterans administration want to know what they are shoving down your throat ask a veteran or a veterans family what dealing with them is like.
Premiums go up in response to a lot of things, a goodly amount for the mandates that Congress/legislatures impose. How fast did they go up? Health Insurance companies make about 2.2% profit; why is that considered “obscene”? It’s about the same as the bank’s CD’s currently! Congress had better include themselves in the “tax the Cadillac” plan, or the “tea parties” will get a lot bigger, fast!
This occured 20 years ago before medical malpractice insurance was an issue with doctors. So are you trying to tell me that they were only trying to be overly cautious by not advising me of all the risk of a spinal tap on a 5 year old. IF they would have know what they were doing they could have made a simple and accurate diagnosis. This is bull just like you are full of bull. I have no interest in protecting doctors from being sued. That doctor is lucky this happened 20 years ago and my son was to embarrased to speak about until he was 20 years old.
It is your mucked up thinking that prevents progress and change for the better.
Ratemaker is not saying that at all. You are putting words in his mouth. He is talking about any John Doe that sues his doctor because the doctor gave him a blue hospital gown instead of a green one like he wanted. You should only be allowed to sue doctors when it is evident they were negligent, and even then, suing a doctor for 10mil because you can’t move your big toe is asinine.
If they only make 2.2% how did United grant a billion dollar bonus to its CEO last year. I read a pretty good article that made the point that medical costs did not get out of hand until medical insurance came into being and started paying the bills.
Sheltowee, I empathize with any parent who had to witness their child needlessly injured by incompetency.
My son’s life was SAVED because of the spinal tap a quick-thinking ER doc performed on him which properly diagnosed the Meningitous few other tests would have revealed.
If he had chosen to take the safe route and NOT perform the admittedly painful and sometimes dangerous procedure, and his hesitation cost my son his life, should I have been as angry and bitter as you obviously are?
There’s no excuse for not making you, as a parent. completely aware of the dangerous side effects of any procedure but if all medical providers in trauma centers had to first worry about being sued before worrying about what’s in the best interest of the patient in front of them we’d lose a lot more patients AND and a lot more doctors.
Med-Mal is ABSOLUTELY a HUGE contributor to health care costs.
Products liabiltiy for big Pharma and medical equipment manufacturers is likewise a HUGE contributor to health care costs.
The cost of educating medical professionals is a HUGE contributor to health care costs.
Defensive Medicine is a HUGE contributor to health care costs.
Treatment of patients that do not contribute to the tax base (because they’re in this country illegally) is HUGE contributor to health care costs.
For that moronic, walking gaff-machine, Biden, to lable Health Insurance Companies as the “Boogyman” that is the SOLE CAUSE of this problem, then to compare increasing Health Insurance Premiums to increasing Salaries (rather than all of the health care costs that contribute to the higher premiums) PROVES THAT HE HAS ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHAT HE’S TALKING ABOUT……
They think if the repeat the same thing over and over it will begin to sound like it’s true to most unsuspecting Americans who are afraid to speak up for fear of being labeled racists….
Danno,
I’m sure that was a good article, however, we probably wouldn’t have as good as medical care we have now, if it wasn’t for insurance. Those medicine companies as well as specialized surgeries wouldn’t be as good if they had no one to pay for the research and experiments. When something new comes out, it is very expensive and not many of us cannot pay for it. So with insurance it gets paid and that money goes to fund the research it takes to create new medicine or surgeries. However, anytime money is involved there will be corruption by everyone involved. Health insurance companies (big CEO pay), drug companies (big CEO pay, profits and a non-moral push on drugs before they really know the side effects) and surgeons. I could go on, but you get the point.
You do have a right to be upset about your son, and it is a tragic case. However, just like lawyers, medicine is a PRACTICE. It is not a true science in it’s application. As times change there are approaches to treatment that changed because the doctors and medical community have evolved due to the PRACTICE of medicine.
The fact that people do not acknowledge this is unfortunate. The doctors use the best tools they have available at the time to practice medicine. Unfortunately, when they make a mistake it does impact the lives of people. People do need to recognize the fact that medicine is a practice and that it is not an art or science.
Come oooooon. Are you saying there is actually a doctor being sued for giving someone a gown that a patient didn’t request and someone is for real suing for 10 ml over the loss of use of his toe?
Frivolous lawsuits are easy to control. If our courts would use common sense, which they can, this would save millions.
Name one example of a court not using common sense in a lawsuit? We all know defense cost can be expensvie but this is why insurance companies should have in house attorney’s. You know, on salary. Attorney’s are a dime a dozen in the yellow pages, struggling to make ends meat. You can’t tell me that insurance companies can’t find good, reliable, affordable legal assistance.
Are you saying that testing for viral meningitis is not as fast as bacterial? You mispelled miningitis are you sure your son had it? Not only that, how on earth did he recover? And how old was he?
My son could have been diagnosed in the physician’s office had the physician listened to me in my several telephone conversations, describing his symtoms and requesting to see the doctor asap. But the DOCTOR refused to see him and stated that he needed to be nursed at home for the flu. It was my mother and I that finaly decided to take him to the ER, because he couldn’t walk himself to the bathroom. Oh yes, I had insurance, good insurance, which I paid for each month and they paid for the ER visit and everything else. This was at a time when insurance companies offered full coverage with little out of pocket for Er visits.
My son’s physician was angry with me for taking him to the ER and reprimanded me by stating “you didn’t tell me he couln’t walk”. To say the least, I bit my tongue, becuase my Father, sits on the hospital board. I did change doctors discretely.
If the insurance company profits are obscene at 7% or 10% or lets say even 15%, then why can an attorney receive 30% or more of a settlement?
As Mr. Beck would say, “I’m just askin’!”
I recall an article on IJ just last month about a family sueing a ballpark and the batter because the batter hit a homerun waaaaaaaaaaay out into the outfield and it hit a 4 year old in the head. Why was the family out in that picnic area anyhow? The family is sueing for an obscene amount of money. As for common sense…what is that old saying? “A jury is made up 12 people that couldn’t get out of jury duty”.
Lawyers are going to tug at the jury’s heartstrings. “Look at this poor person! The doctor messed up! Down with big business!!” and the jury will eat it up! I had a jury summons last year and never had to show up. As soon as they found out my occupation (insurance agent) they said “No thanks!” But there are hundreds of frivolous lawsuits out on the courts right now (expecally with all these ambulance chasers “we will get you the money YOU deserve!”)
Very good question indeed! People that are anti-big business look at the acutal money they pull in, not the acutal percentage to really put it in perspective. And what people don’t realise that it just takes one active claim year to wipe out allllll that profit from the last 5 years. I put it to them this way “If you owned a business, and it was only making 2% profit, wouldn’t YOU want to try and increase your profit percentage? With retail companies, its really a matter of building more stores, whereas its more of a risk for an insurance company if they insure more people, because there is more chances for claims.
This is a perfect example of the distorted perception people have that ads to the confustion. First of all, a Ball Park’s, General Liablity doesn’t have any connection to the cost of Medical Mal-Practice Frivolous Lawsuits. Second, what was the injury? This sounds serious and your statement sounds very callous and unconcerned for the child’s welfare. When someone enters a place a business there is an assumed and implied level of safety for all who enter. The Ball Park could very well be negligent by not putting up proper guards or warnings of fly balls and not to allow small children into the park. OR maybe the Ball Park just takes it for granted and really doesn’t want guards, because less people would be less attracted to come in, because they like the implied opportunity to catch a home run or fowl ball.
Remember the teenager who died at a hockey arena from a stray hockey puck striking her temple (could’ve been prevented)? You better believe I would be suing and I’m too sure you would be as well.
I agree that people should only sue if they in fact have damages. Is this so hard to figure out?
They need to consider the real causes for this like the restrictions on interstate commerce and legislated coverage mandates.
Right. When there is a problem, the quickest way to find a solution to a problem is finding out what CASUES the problem. The question they need to ask themselves is “WHY are premiums going up?” But if they ask themselves that, they will see that its not because the insurance companies are greedy, its because the cost of healthcare has gone up dramaticly. And why has the cost of healthcare gone up dramaticly? Because everyone and their brother will sue a docter if he so much as looks at his paicent wrong. Congress is full of lawyers, so of course they are not going to change tort reform. it would just be easier to drive the insurance companies out of business.
Of course they don’t look at the trial attorneys, they own the Democratic party. MedMal is a huge cost of medical care in both hard dollars for the insurance cost and soft costs for extra tests and treatments. Some estimates are 30% of costs.
Congress and the executive branch have focused on mechanisms to pay for health care while the cost of health care keeps rising unabated. How loud must we shout before our representatives hear us? Address the COST of health care.
That’s not the cause! They need to do something about the drug companies who overcharge for everything and the doctors who are making out like bandits. I have an eye drop that, when it was a prescription, cost over $100 a bottle. It’s now OTC and is $14.95. What a rip off before it went OTC!
Brother, are you saying that malpractice insurance payouts for bad doctors is some how related to health insurance premiums? My son, has permanent nerve damage from a spinal tap he didn’t need (his WHOLE life was/is effected and mine & husbands too), but I was pressured into consenting to the procedure, without being advised of the risk of nerve damage and the result of nerve damage. Hell, I didn’t even know what a spinal tap was. He took a whole 60 seconds to state we needed it but were some unlikely side effects (the side effect my son suffered was not even mentioned). Only to find out he didn’t need it after all and what was wrong is that he had a virus, which was being determined at the same time I was being talked into allowing the spinal tap. I wish I could sue that doctor now.
Oh, Does Aetna or Anthem sell mal-practice insurance? Or are you saying the hospitals and doctors are charging more in order to pay for the mal practice insurance? They would be better off setting higher standards for their doctors and demanding better quality. Do this along with a hold harmless agreement with the patient for human error (not neglect) and problem is solved.
An old Pogo quote was “We have met the enemy and it is us.” If the Legislative branch wants to find the main cause they only need look in a mirror.
Nothing that comes out of Washington has any degree of honesty associated with it. This is a perfect example, and WHY isn’t the reporter asking questions about why costs have increased? I don’t like how much I have to pay for coverage either, but it’s MY decision, not Obama’s!
The real question is: Has health insurance premiums risen faster than health care costs?
And how about asking how a Government run program layered on top of no meaningful cost containment could possibly be cheaper or run more efficiently? Think Post Office versus UPS/Fedex.
Just heard a snippet of an interview Wolf Blitzer did with David Axelrod. Wolf asked about changing the laws to allow sale of insurance policies natinwide instead of restricting by state, he said this will increase competition and lower cost. Axelrod said that is not part of the plan to reform healthcare and that the new healthcare cooperatives the Obama administration is proposing will do that, there’s no need to sell across state lines. He was somewhat taken aback that Wokf had the temerity to ask this. It must have deviated from the script. Yet in every pro reform speeech someone, often Obama brings up that some company has a monopoly in a state and this is driving costs up. Then fix it! Allow sale across the nation of the same policies for everyone. Get some real competition in there.
Health insurance premiums have gone faster than inflation because health care cost have gone up faster than inflation. Duh. How about layers fees. They have also gone up faster than inflation along with the taxes and the growth in government which has gone up faster than insurance premiums if you want to play that game. Don’t hear the liberals complaining about that do you. If taxes had not gone up so much people would have the money for health insurance. And what about Medicare. It also has gone up faster than the cost of living and the government already controls that! If they can cut half a bil from elderly care then why don’t they do it now. They do not need to revamp the system to do that. They won’t because they will have to ration health care to the elderly. PEOPLE WAKE UP. THEY LIE.
There are many things that drive the increasing cost of healthcare – state & federal benefit mandates, the state line issue, malpractice exposures requiring ‘cover your rump’ medical practices, limited (controlled) enrollment at medical colleges, etc. But, the biggest driver is the governments CURRENT involvement in the system. Medicare/Medicaid get away with paying a fraction of the true cost of providing care to doctors/hospitals. Those uncompensated costs are SHIFTED to the private paying market. Why do most doctors want to limit the # of medicare eligable patients they see? Because at those reimbursement rates THEY CAN’T PAY BACK THEIR RIDICULOUS COLLEGE LOANS, much less keep an office open! If you then say “well, the whole sytem should be government run then because that way the cost would go down”, ask yourself who in there right mind would incur all of that expense and go through (what amounts to) 12 years of school to make medicare wages and work 12 hour days. It certainly won’t be the best and the brightest!
THESE are the things that Obama and his socialist comrades can’t afford to say.
What was the % increase in the ‘government reimbursement rate’ over the same period in question. Don’t give me a $ figure, as we have an aging population.
Med Mal payouts ABSOLUTELY have something to do with the cost of health care.
Situation: Large payouts exist
Consequence:
1) Med Mal insurer rates must be adequate to cover the occasional large payout.
2) Greater incentive to file lawsuits following bad outcome of medical care, whether or not malpractice actually occurred.
3) Med Mal insurers incur more expenses doing their contractual duty to defend these lawsuits. Premiums must be adequate to cover these expenses.
4) to cover increased med mal premiums, medical care providers do the rational thing and pass these costs on to their customers. Since Medicare won’t pay a higher cost, it goes to privately insured and uninsured individuals.
5) To make the “big payout” less likely, doctors practice defensive medicine, taking more scans and tests than are really necessary — but it might come up in a trial. The costs to run these tests are passed on to the health insurers, which raises costs to the insurers and therefore health insurance premiums.
The whole of economics is “people respond to incentives.” There is no denying that the possibility of extreme malpractice awards contributes to the high cost of health care. The only argument is over the magnitude of the effect.
The government already has a model of their healthcare plan its called the Veterans administration want to know what they are shoving down your throat ask a veteran or a veterans family what dealing with them is like.
Premiums go up in response to a lot of things, a goodly amount for the mandates that Congress/legislatures impose. How fast did they go up? Health Insurance companies make about 2.2% profit; why is that considered “obscene”? It’s about the same as the bank’s CD’s currently! Congress had better include themselves in the “tax the Cadillac” plan, or the “tea parties” will get a lot bigger, fast!
This occured 20 years ago before medical malpractice insurance was an issue with doctors. So are you trying to tell me that they were only trying to be overly cautious by not advising me of all the risk of a spinal tap on a 5 year old. IF they would have know what they were doing they could have made a simple and accurate diagnosis. This is bull just like you are full of bull. I have no interest in protecting doctors from being sued. That doctor is lucky this happened 20 years ago and my son was to embarrased to speak about until he was 20 years old.
It is your mucked up thinking that prevents progress and change for the better.
Ratemaker is not saying that at all. You are putting words in his mouth. He is talking about any John Doe that sues his doctor because the doctor gave him a blue hospital gown instead of a green one like he wanted. You should only be allowed to sue doctors when it is evident they were negligent, and even then, suing a doctor for 10mil because you can’t move your big toe is asinine.
If they only make 2.2% how did United grant a billion dollar bonus to its CEO last year. I read a pretty good article that made the point that medical costs did not get out of hand until medical insurance came into being and started paying the bills.
Sheltowee, I empathize with any parent who had to witness their child needlessly injured by incompetency.
My son’s life was SAVED because of the spinal tap a quick-thinking ER doc performed on him which properly diagnosed the Meningitous few other tests would have revealed.
If he had chosen to take the safe route and NOT perform the admittedly painful and sometimes dangerous procedure, and his hesitation cost my son his life, should I have been as angry and bitter as you obviously are?
There’s no excuse for not making you, as a parent. completely aware of the dangerous side effects of any procedure but if all medical providers in trauma centers had to first worry about being sued before worrying about what’s in the best interest of the patient in front of them we’d lose a lot more patients AND and a lot more doctors.
Med-Mal is ABSOLUTELY a HUGE contributor to health care costs.
Products liabiltiy for big Pharma and medical equipment manufacturers is likewise a HUGE contributor to health care costs.
The cost of educating medical professionals is a HUGE contributor to health care costs.
Defensive Medicine is a HUGE contributor to health care costs.
Treatment of patients that do not contribute to the tax base (because they’re in this country illegally) is HUGE contributor to health care costs.
For that moronic, walking gaff-machine, Biden, to lable Health Insurance Companies as the “Boogyman” that is the SOLE CAUSE of this problem, then to compare increasing Health Insurance Premiums to increasing Salaries (rather than all of the health care costs that contribute to the higher premiums) PROVES THAT HE HAS ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHAT HE’S TALKING ABOUT……
They think if the repeat the same thing over and over it will begin to sound like it’s true to most unsuspecting Americans who are afraid to speak up for fear of being labeled racists….
Danno,
I’m sure that was a good article, however, we probably wouldn’t have as good as medical care we have now, if it wasn’t for insurance. Those medicine companies as well as specialized surgeries wouldn’t be as good if they had no one to pay for the research and experiments. When something new comes out, it is very expensive and not many of us cannot pay for it. So with insurance it gets paid and that money goes to fund the research it takes to create new medicine or surgeries. However, anytime money is involved there will be corruption by everyone involved. Health insurance companies (big CEO pay), drug companies (big CEO pay, profits and a non-moral push on drugs before they really know the side effects) and surgeons. I could go on, but you get the point.
Sheltowee,
You do have a right to be upset about your son, and it is a tragic case. However, just like lawyers, medicine is a PRACTICE. It is not a true science in it’s application. As times change there are approaches to treatment that changed because the doctors and medical community have evolved due to the PRACTICE of medicine.
The fact that people do not acknowledge this is unfortunate. The doctors use the best tools they have available at the time to practice medicine. Unfortunately, when they make a mistake it does impact the lives of people. People do need to recognize the fact that medicine is a practice and that it is not an art or science.
Come oooooon. Are you saying there is actually a doctor being sued for giving someone a gown that a patient didn’t request and someone is for real suing for 10 ml over the loss of use of his toe?
Frivolous lawsuits are easy to control. If our courts would use common sense, which they can, this would save millions.
Name one example of a court not using common sense in a lawsuit? We all know defense cost can be expensvie but this is why insurance companies should have in house attorney’s. You know, on salary. Attorney’s are a dime a dozen in the yellow pages, struggling to make ends meat. You can’t tell me that insurance companies can’t find good, reliable, affordable legal assistance.
Are you saying that testing for viral meningitis is not as fast as bacterial? You mispelled miningitis are you sure your son had it? Not only that, how on earth did he recover? And how old was he?
My son could have been diagnosed in the physician’s office had the physician listened to me in my several telephone conversations, describing his symtoms and requesting to see the doctor asap. But the DOCTOR refused to see him and stated that he needed to be nursed at home for the flu. It was my mother and I that finaly decided to take him to the ER, because he couldn’t walk himself to the bathroom. Oh yes, I had insurance, good insurance, which I paid for each month and they paid for the ER visit and everything else. This was at a time when insurance companies offered full coverage with little out of pocket for Er visits.
My son’s physician was angry with me for taking him to the ER and reprimanded me by stating “you didn’t tell me he couln’t walk”. To say the least, I bit my tongue, becuase my Father, sits on the hospital board. I did change doctors discretely.
So let me tell you strait up. I don’t belive you.
If the insurance company profits are obscene at 7% or 10% or lets say even 15%, then why can an attorney receive 30% or more of a settlement?
As Mr. Beck would say, “I’m just askin’!”
I recall an article on IJ just last month about a family sueing a ballpark and the batter because the batter hit a homerun waaaaaaaaaaay out into the outfield and it hit a 4 year old in the head. Why was the family out in that picnic area anyhow? The family is sueing for an obscene amount of money. As for common sense…what is that old saying? “A jury is made up 12 people that couldn’t get out of jury duty”.
Lawyers are going to tug at the jury’s heartstrings. “Look at this poor person! The doctor messed up! Down with big business!!” and the jury will eat it up! I had a jury summons last year and never had to show up. As soon as they found out my occupation (insurance agent) they said “No thanks!” But there are hundreds of frivolous lawsuits out on the courts right now (expecally with all these ambulance chasers “we will get you the money YOU deserve!”)
Very good question indeed! People that are anti-big business look at the acutal money they pull in, not the acutal percentage to really put it in perspective. And what people don’t realise that it just takes one active claim year to wipe out allllll that profit from the last 5 years. I put it to them this way “If you owned a business, and it was only making 2% profit, wouldn’t YOU want to try and increase your profit percentage? With retail companies, its really a matter of building more stores, whereas its more of a risk for an insurance company if they insure more people, because there is more chances for claims.
This is a perfect example of the distorted perception people have that ads to the confustion. First of all, a Ball Park’s, General Liablity doesn’t have any connection to the cost of Medical Mal-Practice Frivolous Lawsuits. Second, what was the injury? This sounds serious and your statement sounds very callous and unconcerned for the child’s welfare. When someone enters a place a business there is an assumed and implied level of safety for all who enter. The Ball Park could very well be negligent by not putting up proper guards or warnings of fly balls and not to allow small children into the park. OR maybe the Ball Park just takes it for granted and really doesn’t want guards, because less people would be less attracted to come in, because they like the implied opportunity to catch a home run or fowl ball.
Remember the teenager who died at a hockey arena from a stray hockey puck striking her temple (could’ve been prevented)? You better believe I would be suing and I’m too sure you would be as well.
I agree that people should only sue if they in fact have damages. Is this so hard to figure out?