A Forum for Grinches and Ho-Ho-Hoes

[ltl/fb]

Originally posted by Did you just call me Coltrane?
A US bankruptcy trustee aquaintance of mine no likey this bill. And he's voted republican for the past 30 years.

Yeah, but he hasn't run R, so no campaign contributions.

ETA it is absolutely linked to the healthcare stuff. If only these people would take better care of their health, they wouldn't have these problems. This would include, you know, going to live in the non-urban desert if the kids have asthma, and paying tolls for the long drive to work.

[Not Bob]

Originally posted by bilmore
So, no interest rate caps, either?

And no meat inspection? Adults can sniff, right?

Exactly. Freedom of contract, and all that. The market will reward those who sell good meat, poutry, etc., and punish those who don't -- a sound spanking by Adam Smith's invisible hand, if you will.

And I've always wondered -- who is the state to say how many hours children can work a week, or how old they have to be? That's what parents are for.

[Did you just call me Coltrane?]

Originally posted by Shape Shifter
The study is here. To the extent that there is a bankruptcy "crisis," I suspect it is inextricably linked to the healthcare crisis. Take it away, RT.

And then there's the faux med-mal crisis. Again, RT, take it away.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by sgtclub
I, like most adults, am perfectly capable of assessing my debt exposure limitations.

I hope you're also capable of avoiding major medical problems. Because notwithstanding the suggestion that bankruptcy is all about people who spend too much with their credit cards, more than half of bankruptcies follow medical emergencies.

• In 2001, 1.458 million American families filed for bankruptcy. To investigate medical contributors to bankruptcy, we surveyed 1,771 personal bankruptcy filers in five federal courts and subsequently completed in-depth interviews with 931 of them. About half cited medical causes, which indicates that 1.9–2.2 million Americans (filers plus dependents) experienced medical bankruptcy. Among those whose illnesses led to bankruptcy, out-of-pocket costs averaged $11,854 since the start of illness; 75.7 percent had insurance at the onset of illness. Medical debtors were 42 percent more likely than other debtors to experience lapses in coverage. Even middle-class insured families often fall prey to financial catastrophe when sick.

That's the abstract of this study. But fuck 'em, right?

eta: stp

[ltl/fb]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
I hope you're also capable of avoiding major medical problems. Because notwithstanding the suggestion that bankruptcy is all about people who spend too much with their credit cards, more than half of bankruptcies follow medical emergencies.

• In 2001, 1.458 million American families filed for bankruptcy. To investigate medical contributors to bankruptcy, we surveyed 1,771 personal bankruptcy filers in five federal courts and subsequently completed in-depth interviews with 931 of them. About half cited medical causes, which indicates that 1.9–2.2 million Americans (filers plus dependents) experienced medical bankruptcy. Among those whose illnesses led to bankruptcy, out-of-pocket costs averaged $11,854 since the start of illness; 75.7 percent had insurance at the onset of illness. Medical debtors were 42 percent more likely than other debtors to experience lapses in coverage. Even middle-class insured families often fall prey to financial catastrophe when sick.

That's the abstract of this study. But fuck 'em, right?

He has health insurance -- and even a $5,000 stop-loss wouldn't really inconvenience him (unlike, say, someone who makes $30,000 or even $50,000 a year). Unless he got really, really sick and couldn't work, and Unum cut off his disability payments after a couple years. But no one ever thinks they will get disabled.

[Not Bob]

Originally posted by ltl/fb
Mmmmmmmmmeat.

What was the book about slaughterhouses?

The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair. Buy it via the Lawtalkers Amazon link to the left. Allegedly based upon the Armour factory in the The City of the Big Shoulders, and Hog Butcher To The World.

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally posted by Did you just call me Coltrane?
And then there's the faux med-mal crisis. Again, RT, take it away.

I'll leave it to my fellow Texans in the New York Times op Ed:

False Diagnosis
By BERNARD BLACK, CHARLES SILVER, DAVID HYMAN and WILLIAM SAGE

Published: March 10, 2005

Austin, Tex.

MEDICAL malpractice litigation reform is a high priority for President Bush, who contends that juries are running amok, multimillion-dollar settlements are on the rise and greedy trial lawyers are filing frivolous suits. The results, Mr. Bush and others argue, include skyrocketing insurance prices, abandoned medical practices, defensive medicine and a crisis of access to care. Their proposed solution: caps on jury awards to patients and on lawyers' contingent fees.

No one disputes that insurance premiums have risen significantly. The question is whether a crisis in states' tort systems accounts for the increase. Consider Mr. Bush's home state of Texas, America's second most populous state and the third largest in terms of total health care spending. After studying a database maintained by the Texas Department of Insurance that contains all insured malpractice claims resolved between 1988 and 2002, we saw no evidence of a tort crisis. Adjusting for inflation and rising population, we arrived at the following findings:

Large claims (with payouts of at least $25,000 in 1988 dollars) were roughly constant in frequency.

The percentage of claims with payments of more than $1 million remained steady at about 6 percent of all large claims.

The number of total paid claims per 100 practicing physicians per year fell to fewer than five in 2002 from greater than six in 1990-92.

Mean and median payouts per large paid claim were roughly constant.

Jury verdicts in favor of plaintiffs showed no trend over time.

The total cost of large malpractice claims was both stable and a small fraction (less than 1 percent) of total health care expenditures in Texas.

In short, as far as medical malpractice cases are concerned, for 15 years the Texas tort system has been remarkably stable. Texas's situation is not unique. One study of Florida's experience from 1990 to 2003 also found declines in paid claims per 100 practicing physicians as well as per 100,000 population. Over the same period in Missouri, the total number of malpractice claims fell by about 40 percent and the number of paid claims dropped almost by half.

Malpractice premiums have risen sharply in Texas and many other states. But, at least in Texas, the sharp spikes in insurance prices reflect forces operating outside the tort system.

The medical malpractice system has many problems, but a crisis in claims, payouts and jury verdicts is not among them. Thus, the federal "solution" that Mr. Bush proposes is both overbroad and directed at the wrong problem.

BTW, there's some really cool stuff in today's and yesterday's Health Law Prof Blog, including a lot on the Terri Shaivo case and the report on physician assisted suicide from Oregon. Well, cool if you're me.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
I'll leave it to my fellow Texans in the New York Times op Ed:



BTW, there's some really cool stuff in today's and yesterday's Health Law Prof Blog, including a lot on the Terri Shaivo case and the report on physician assisted suicide from Oregon. Well, cool if you're me.

This thread is closed -- time for mods and admins to stop posting in it. Fringey's about to open a new one.