Ya wanna get health care costs down?

jimpeel

jimpeel

Well-Known Member
Then simply give civilian doctors and hospitals the same protection the government enjoys. Of course, that will be ending soon because of this case and we will all be paying for it.

SOURCE

Jul 17, 2009 10:44 pm US/Central
Military Medical Mistake Disfigures Local Airman

ARLINGTON (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―Jessica Read is still stunned about what happened to her husband. "It's very hard for us to understand."

Last week, 20-year-old Colton Read, who grew up in Arlington and who's now in the U. S. Air Force, went to have laparoscopic surgery to remove his gall-bladder at David Grant Medical Center at Travis Air Force Base near Sacramento.

His mother, Shelly Read-Miller says he wasn't worried. "He said 'Mom, this is routine, it's no big deal.'"

But what happened during surgery turned out to be a very big deal.

Jessica Read says around 10 a.m., about an hour into the procedure, "A nurse runs out, 'We need blood now,' and she rounds the corner and my gut feelings is, 'Oh my God, is that my husband?'"

She says his Air Force general surgeon mistakenly cut her husband's aortic artery, but waited hours to transport him to a state hospital which has a vascular surgeon. "It took them until 5:30 to get him to UC Davis. I don't understand."

Because Read lost so much blood during that time, doctors had to amputate both legs. His mother sobbed, "I watched him take his first steps, and now his legs are gone."

Read is still in intensive care, and doctors can't remove his gall bladder for fear of infection.

Now, his wife says they must keep his spirits up because he knows what happened to him. "When we've been in there he'll say, 'They're gone,' and we say, 'It's okay though. You made it through the surgery we have your life, thank God.'"

In a statement, Lt. Holly Hess, chief of public affairs at Travis Air Force Base says, "We are conducting an exhaustive review with experts from outside David Grant Medical Center, as well as an internal investigation with the goal of ensuring patient safety and quality care at the center."

Read's wife says the doctor admitted it was human error. "All my husband ever wanted to do was to deploy, all my husband ever wanted to do was serve his country. He used to tell me when we had flyovers and they played the national anthem, the chills he would get from the pride that he felt from being an American airman, and this is something an Air Force doctor has taken from him."

But because of an old federal law called the Feres Doctrine, Read, his wife, and his family members can't sue the military over what happened to him.

Until last November, retired Lt. Colonel Colby Vokey served in the U. S. Marine Corps for 21 years, the past 11 as a judge advocate, or attorney. "To me, it's disgraceful."

Vokey says the original thought behind the law was, "The military would make someone whole. That if you're hurt in the line of duty, hurt in battle, the military would take care of their own. That's certainly not the case, and certainly not the case with this young man."

A bill is pending in congress that would end this law.

For now, Read's wife says the military may place him on medical retirement, in which he'll likely receive less than half his $1600 monthly salary. "I can't understand why they won't help him when they did this to him."

Friends who serve with Read at the Ninth Intelligence Squadron at nearby Beale Air Force Base have sent him a get well card. Read's family members say his friends at the base and commanders there have provided much emotional and financial support.

Jessica says she knows she must keep it altogether. "I've made up my mind. I can cry later, because right now he needs me. He needs me to be strong."

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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Frodo

Frodo

Member
She says his Air Force general surgeon mistakenly cut her husband's aortic artery
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How in God's name do cut the Aorta while removing the gall bladder. I wonder if he ever accidently castrated someone while performing a tonsilectomy.
 
MrBishop

MrBishop

Well-Known Member
You want to get healthcare costs down?

1) Make hospitals 'not for profit'
2) Extend the military malpractice protection to ALL civilian hospitals and doctors, so that you can't sue ANY doctors.
3) Reduce salary of all doctors because they no longer need horribly expensive malpractice insurance
4) Set costs for hospital stays and treatments to a real level instead of the overbloated levels where they are now. ($900/night for a hospital room f'r crissakes!!)
5) Treat the health of your citizens as if it's an 'essential service' instead of a billable and grossly profitable one.
 
randomJACKASS

randomJACKASS

Banned
MrBishop said:
You want to get healthcare costs down?

1) Make hospitals 'not for profit'
2) Extend the military malpractice protection to ALL civilian hospitals and doctors, so that you can't sue ANY doctors.
3) Reduce salary of all doctors because they no longer need horribly expensive malpractice insurance
4) Set costs for hospital stays and treatments to a real level instead of the overbloated levels where they are now. ($900/night for a hospital room f'r crissakes!!)
5) Treat the health of your citizens as if it's an 'essential service' instead of a billable and grossly profitable one.
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You know they ought to make it a crime (malpractice) rather than something you can bring suit over.
 
MrBishop

MrBishop

Well-Known Member
randomJACKASS said:
You know they ought to make it a crime (malpractice) rather than something you can bring suit over.
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Basically, yeah. The Doctor would get arrested and charged, lose his license to practice medicine and take a potentially bad doctor out of circulation.

The lawsuits for malpractice are often the only way people can pay for medical treatment and avoid bankruptcy. Ditto for most other lawsuits that you see.
 
2minkey

2minkey

bootlicker
MrBishop said:
The lawsuits for malpractice are often the only way people can pay for medical treatment and avoid bankruptcy. Ditto for most other lawsuits that you see.
Click to expand...

no lawyer worth shit is going to take a malpractice case without actual and substantial malpractice. do you have any idea how expensive it is to prop up one of those claims? good, collectable malpractice claims are not everyday bullshit like "can't pay the bill." to suggest that they go together "often" is absurd.
 
MrBishop

MrBishop

Well-Known Member
And what about the ambulance chasers? They're not out against the Docs, per se..but they can always toss in the hospital into the list of all they're going to sue (for a reasonable percentage).

Car accident? Sue the other driver...and/or the manufacturer of the car you were in, and/or the city for not cleaning the streets or not having easily visible signs etc etc..
 
2minkey

2minkey

bootlicker
what about ambulance chasers?

they won't take cases unless there is good liability and "good" damages. they work on contingency. client loses, so do they. there are a few places - wayne county michigan and cook county illinois - where it's a little easier to prop up a shit case and get a decent jury award, but for the most part... um, no.

sue the fucking hospital for a motor vehicle accident? are you kidding?

car wreck = sue at-fault driver, owner of other vehicle if different from driver, other driver's insurance carrier, possibly your own insurance carrier depending on where you live and how first party claims are structured and how much your asshole insurer refuses to pay ("nah, you're not hurt, go back to work, we ain't paying lost wages!"). but in many places the threshhold for even having a third party claim is getting pretty steep, so plaintiff fuck off!

but this still has nothing to do with the hospital. the only thing the hospital will have to do with it is if your insurance does not pay them and then they refer your ass to collections for not paying their bills. they sue YOU, not you sue them, ummkay?
 
Frodo

Frodo

Member
Easy fix here folks. Pass tort reform that includes:
1) Loser pays all
2) Contingency fees outlawed

The hard part will be passing it with out the Lawyers and Politicians knowing.
 
Gonz

Gonz

molṑn labé
Staff member
Tort reform and employer sponsored HSA's instead of insurance. 3-5K a year (rough equivalent of the medical insurance policy), put into an HSA (health savings account) for the employee to do with as they see fit.
 
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