Originally Posted by Synnen
To pay devil's advocate with you...
I don't WANT socialized medicine. Absolutely not!
I like being able to choose my doctor, and being able to pay to get better care. Yes, it's expensive, but....so are lawsuits.
You want to drop the cost of medicine? Make it so that people can't sue their doctor because of simple human error. EVERYONE makes mistakes at their job. To be able to sue a doctor for malpractice because his judgement call was wrong means that they have to have higher malpractice insurance and therefore must charge more.
Once again, it goes back to personal accountability, and taking responsibility for your own life. If your doctor tells you that the mole is normal, you have the right to get a second or third or fourth opinion! You *shouldn't* have the right to sue him if he's wrong.
On the OTHER side of that coin--if doctors were not getting sued for every time they didn't save someone, then we could make the lawsuits that were left, the ones for gross negligence (like drinking before operating) MUCH more stringent, and break up the "good old boys" club of doctors that protect each other when stuff like that happens.
Let's throw this in there, too, then: If people in America took better care of themselves through diet, exercise and regular checkups, stopped smoking (because by now, who doesn't know it's bad for you?) and just generally took better care of their own bodies.....wouldn't health care costs come down?