Thursday, September 3rd, 2009
Letters to the Editor I wish I’d written:
In the local fishwrap, of all places. The first letter takes on the notion that if you make it impossible to sue incompetent doctors, CIGNA will provide free ponies for everyone:
Tort reform
Re: Aug. 20 letter “Society’s real problem.”
Tort reform is a red herring when it comes to health care costs.
We all know how much tort reform has helped consumers in Texas, California and the 16 other states that have passed strong tort reform laws. My insurance premiums have risen more than 40 percent in the last three years. I now pay more than $4,000 per year and carry a $1,500 deductible. And I have never submitted a single claim.
A study by the American Medical Association based on surveys sent to medical practitioners shows that malpractice premiums as a percentage of overhead was the same in 2000 as it was in 1986. The largest percentage increase of overhead during that time (36 percent) was for nonmedical staffing. Might that be because of the extra people needed to process insurance paperwork?
The second letter uses conservatives’ Free Market Fundamentalism™ against them:
There is no health care market
What conservatives have forgotten in the debate over health care reform is that there is no health care market.
In a market, consumers operate with sufficient information and bargaining power to make effective choices based on marginal benefit. Hospitals and insurers are loath to part with information necessary to make informed choices.
Although 39 states require hospitals to report information on mortality or infections resulting from medical care, this information is difficult to find and not currently available in Texas. And even armed with information, consumers can hardly choose their emergency care provider.
Our choice is whether or not we value the myth of the health care market above the reality of human suffering it causes. The cost of protecting the health care market is inefficiency, a broken economy and, for those unable to receive life-saving care, death.
Heh. Indeed.
