[MD] The Death Panels

[ARLO J BENSINGER JR]

[John]
The real issue in this country is tort reform.  Take the lawyers and the
malpractice insurance companies completely out of the health equation and
health care costs would plummet.

[Arlo]
It's one issue, although I personally wouldn't call it the "real" issue. The
problem is, malpractice is a safety valve, it is supposed to keep the system
honest. If you go in for a kidney issue, and they perform a vasectomy,
shouldn't you be entitled to damages? Who decides how much? Insurance
companies? I think they'd be more concerned with profits. Doctors? Wouldn't
they have a vested interested in keeping your damages low?

What's funny is that the same people who squalk "death panels" seem to have no
issue with some bureaucratic "panel" decided how much your particular wrongful
injury is worth. We don't want a "panel" decided who can receive a particular
treatment, but if you are wrongly treated we want a "panel" to tell you how
much compensation you deserve. 

Assume you got a wrongful vasectomy. How much would YOU feel your compensation
should be? 100 billion? I think we can all agree that's too much. $1? I think
we can all agree that's too little. But who gets to decide the "fair" amount in
between?

I agree with you, we need some form of tort reform, but we *need* malpractice.
I shudder to think of a system without some degree of it.