Doctors, Insurance and Lawyers, Oh My!

Monday, August 01, 2005



Doctors, Insurance and Lawyers, Oh My!

By Brad Snyder



The seven year old girl told her mom, “A boy in my class asked me to play doctor.” The horrified mother gasped, “What did he do to you honey?” “Nothing, he made me wait 45 minutes and then double-billed the insurance company.” We all know jokes about doctors, but the problem with health care in America is no laughing matter. The major cause for the decline in America’s health care involves its change from a benevolent service to a highly-profitable conglomeration. Proponents of our health care system in America claim we have the best system in the world. I disagree. I say we have the most expensive.



This past Thursday, the senate passed a medical Malpractice bill that limited “pain and suffering” awards in malpractice law suits to $250,000. This goes along with President Bush’s promise to fix our ailing health care industry. The problem as he sees it is frivolous law suits, but he doesn't go nearly far enough. Who benefits the most with his resolve? Doctors! Who can be blamed for much of what is wrong? Doctors! If you could see all the waste, abuse and fraud that go on in medical offices that I see everyday, your head would hurt. (Take two aspirins, and call me in the morning. That will be $150.00 please).



Guns don't kill people…doctors do. Out of the 700,000 doctors in America, there are approximately 160,000 wrongful deaths each year, that’s not counting errors where fatalities do not occur. This means, statistically speaking, approximately 22% of doctors cause injury and death rather than life. The most complex of brain or heart surgeries take place every day without a written protocol, because doctors think they are all knowing and all wise. The number of doctor errors that take place on a daily basis suggests otherwise. Why is President Bush protecting doctors, when he should be protecting you and I.



When doctors and lobbyist at the AMA complain about high malpractice insurance rates, they mean their net income is not as large as they think they deserve. Doctors should stop getting mad at lawyers, and start getting mad at doctors who make mistakes. How often do we hear a doctor speaking out about another doctor?



It is my view that doctors should never have been made the richest kids on the block. Money has corrupted these public servants. They used to be the most respected because they could be counted on to be there, in our time of need, but not anymore. Try going to the hospital in the middle of the night. Most nurses will refuse to wake their ogre superiors, and if they do, God help their poor soul. Physicians’ claim that they are in their profession to “help people” should be looked upon with skepticism. More likely, they're in it for their pocket books and stock portfolios. The real problem with Health care can be summed up in one word: “Greed”.



Aside from their inflated salaries, not all excess can be attributed to MDs. Consider Leonard Schaffer, Chairman of Wellpoint, Inc., the largest health insurance company in the U.S. He makes a whopping $46 million a year, and this doesn't include perks and retirement benefits. Compare that to $600,000, a high end salary for a vascular surgeon. Small peanuts, huh? Companies like WellPoint claim to keep their costs low for the purpose of not overcharging the public with high insurance premiums. But last year, the top six health insurers alone received approximately $150 billion in premiums and paid out only $90 billion in claims. This $60 billion differential is enough money to pay the health care premiums for the 40 million people in the United States who can't afford insurance.



Many Health insurance companies disallow physicians to perform treatment based upon the insurance company’s financial criteria. They systematically deny payment for legitimate claims, and purposefully misrepresent the amount of coverage the insured should receive. A common insurance company practice pays bonuses to claim assessors to meet claims-denial quotas. For many of these reasons, lawsuits against insurance companies are prosecuted under the RICO Act (Racketeering Influenced and Corruption Organization Act). In other words, the insurance world is made up of thugs who might make John Gotti look like a choir boy.



Now, enter lawyers. There are 5 lawyers in a Suburban, and it’s about to drive over a cliff. What’s wrong with this picture? Suburbans seat 8. It used to be that personal injury lawyers crept from their netherworld when someone in a car was rear ended. These low life lawyers were looked upon as outcasts by the legal community, but not anymore. Now we have personal injury lawyers everywhere, and the money they make is obscene. The award sought in a current fast food obesity case is $480 Million. These lawyers aren't just chasing ambulances anymore. They're suing the pants off Joe Camel and Ronald McDonald. Now, when I try to buy a Quarter Pounder with cheese, it costs me $86.95. Ok, I exaggerate, but we consumers pay the price for these petty law suits. No doubt, much of this legal exploitation is absorbed into our healthcare and insurance costs.



If given the chance to further confound the problems of healthcare, Liberal-with-my-money Hillary’s solution is constitutional “insurance for all”. As horrible as this sounds, I am more in line with Hillary than I am the President. Our constitution gives us the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Happiness is in our control, but life and health are not. I believe it is the federal government’s responsibility to procure good healthcare for all citizens. Everyone should have access to medication and healthcare without concern for quality of care, because withholding healthcare is a crime against humanity.



I part with Hillary in that this should not be done at taxpayer’s expense. Doctors, lawyers, and insurance companies along with pharmaceutical companies should be made to renovate this impairment they alone have fashioned. It’s their screw up, they must fix it. The government might act as enforcer and perhaps even mandate price controls for medication and medical services. But much has been given to these highly paid professionals of the healthcare industry. It’s time they give back from their pots of gold, in their land of plenty. Doctors should be “encouraged” to volunteer their time and labor in free medical clinics and hospitals primarily for the uninsured. Those who cooperate can be enticed with lucrative tax breaks. Those who do not will face salary caps.



Like auto insurance, health insurance should be required by law. But for those who can not afford it, catastrophic and emergency health care (not health insurance) should be provided by the generosity of participating medical providers. Medicaid qualifications would be the rule de facto for participants of this free medical service. Can you imagine insurance execs, doctors and lawyers working together for the common good of their fellow man? A pipe dream? Naïve? Over simplified? Perhaps, but the dream is far greater than the nightmare we currently have, and anything else Washington has on the table.