Ken,
While I don't completely agree with Lynda, I don't completely agree with
you either. There are too many people in the US who receive substandard
health care, or no health care because of our "privatized system." With
the cuts that have happened and are proposed for Medicare and Medicaid
that will only become worse.
I live in Wyoming, a state whose economy has directly benefited from
Bush administration policies. Our economy is based mostly on taxes from
production of oil, natural gas and coal, so as energy prices have gone
up, so have state revenues. As federal match rates for governmental
health insurance programs have been reduced, states without increased
revenue have been forced to reduce health coverage for their residents.
As illustrated in a link Meir sent to an article posted on MSNBC talking
about unemployment and under-employment of people with disabilities, a
large number of people with disabilities are forced to rely on
governmental assistance for health care.
I just got off the phone with a friend of mine who would love to be able
to work, but in addition to his CP, he has seizures, requiring over
$300.00 per month in medications, and the necessary doctors visits to
keep those meds regulated. Because of his disabilities, he isn't able
to get jobs that traditionally provide health care benefits, and as such
is forced to stay underemployed or unemployed to maintain his Medicaid
eligibility.
The Merck case is one that, IMHO, should be allowed to stand, because
Merck researchers knew of potential cardiac effects of the drug, and
concealed that information. I've taken Vioxx, and think it's a good
drug, but the company should have made the information about its
potential deleterious effects public knowledge, so that doctors would
have been able to present full information to their patients, and to
accurately weigh the potential risks against the potential benefits of
prescribing the drug.
Many (if not most) hospitals are now publicly held corporations, and so
ownership may be by doctors, or plumbers, or school teachers. If I
remember correctly Linda, you, or your daughter, work in the travel
industry. Should you be prohibited from owning shares in United
Airlines or Hilton Hotels because of that?
Because of the way the US healthcare (read: insurance) system is
currently structured, doctors are often placed in the position of
discharging patients before they feel they are ready. When my wife had
a Baclofen pump placed a month ago, she was still vomiting as we got in
the car to go home. Her doctor would have liked her to stay another
day, not because it made him or the hospital more money, but because he
knew that our trip home (a 3 hour drive) would be unpleasant at best.
He'd been able to get our insurance to cover an additional 24 hours, but
they weren't willing to do more time without an additional diagnosis,
which wasn't warranted.
Kendall
An unreasonable man (but my wife says that's redundant!)
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all
progress depends on the unreasonable man.
-George Bernard Shaw 1856-1950
-----Original Message-----
From: ken barber [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, April 05, 2006 10:51 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Breaking News - Heart attack victim wins $4.5 million in
case against Vioxx-maker Merck
you only have to go north of the u.s. border to know
how good our privatised system is. it can't be better
to have people die waiting on needed care. we can't
afford the government running it. sorry, but, you are
just plain wrong here just like you are with bush.
sorry lynda.
--- Linda Walker <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Yes there are trade offs for everything. I would say
> these suits are
> a major red herring reason for our rising medical
> costs. I am against
> our privatized medical system. Medicine is one
> industry that should
> NOT be run for profit in my opinion. Doctors now own
> hospitals. Is it
> right for them to have a financial incentive to keep
> patients
> hospitalized? What about investments in drug
> companies? Any conflict
> there? I mean there are so many problems with our
> medical delivery
> system, where do we begin?
> We're something like 17th in our ratio of live
> births per 1000. Why
> so low? France is number one in medicine and we
> should look at
> modeling our system similarly.
> You may be right and I am warped from what I've seen
> of the bad guys
> including bad docs. One doctor got a huge rep as a
> great oncologist
> for curing cancer. Well it is mighty easy to cure
> cancer when you've
> diagnosed someone who doesn't have it as having it
> and then say
> you've cured that person. First she underwent
> chemotherapy treatments
> that nearly destroyed her. Then to find out the doc
> was lying for money.
> Thanks to Bush we have the best weapons in the world
> and people be
> damned. Have I vented about Bush yet today? Sorry
> Ken.
>
> At 02:01 PM 4/5/2006, you wrote:
> >But ... but ... these sort of suits are a major
> factor in our
> >increasing medical bills. I think there ought to
> be a low cap on the
> >awards given by juries.
> >
> >Kat
> >
> >On 5 Apr 2006, at 19:59, Linda Walker wrote:
> >
> >I work for lawyers on these types of cases -
> personal injury civil
> >lawsuits. Without civil law average people would
> have no recourse
> >against government or business. Yes the attorneys
> who take them get a
> >percentage of the settlement. That percentage is
> set by statute on a
> >state by state basis, always to my knowledge less
> than half. They
> >also front all the costs, experts, research,
> motions to dismiss,
> >discovery, motions to compel, and expertly prevail
> over a myriad of
> >legal problems no one thinks about. Their payday is
> often years away.
> >Most people would never have the resources to do
> this by the hour in
> >order to protect themselves and if the attorneys
> lose they take the
> >financial hit. If you think it is easy to fight big
> business when
> >they damage people, you might want to think again.
> Civil attorneys
> >have always been heroes of mine, they brought us
> equal rights, civil
> >rights, disability law and have fought to put into
> law just about
> >every other progressive idea on the planet.
> >
> >
> > >
> > > It will ALL GO to the lawyers I
> assume............
> >
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