The Health Care Reform Address Thread

[FRPLG]

Originally Posted by Schneed10

So let's get to it:

What are they doing?: Trying to reduce malpractice costs.

Why?: Because doctors pay out the nose to keep themselves covered, all because juries keep awarding people multi-millions. That cost of malp insurance drives up the cost of doc appointments as docs pass the cost on.

How will they do it? Unknown at this point, no specifics are available, but ultimately the only way to substantively reduce this cost is to somehow reduce the amount of money awarded to victims of malpractice.

How will it help? Over time malpractice insurance premiums will drop for docs. They'll stop raising prices for their appointments.

Here's my question...and it's a lazy one I'll admit. I attended our local town hall meeting which was of course dominated by discussion on health care. It was a very civil affair with probably a good 70-30 split against the current debated HR3200. I live in a heavily conservative area so this is to be expected. Now there were a good amount of the "we simply don't like this crowd". Mostly base on philosophical grounds. The other side was better "prepared". They had answers for everything it seemed but a lot of it sounded like spin to me personally. One woman claimed that her husband had been studying the entire industry for years and that medical-malpractice as it stands now causes only a 2-3% increase in costs. This sounded baffling to me but I admittedly have no reason other than it seems like doctors say that isn't true. So what is the deal? What affect does malpractice judgement in general have on the system? Is it only 2-3% or is it more or even far more? Anyone have anything that answers this conclusively?