Sherrod Brown gets Major League Baseball; Sherrod Brown gets America

Some things are freer than others.

I’m sure most people would settle for “affordable”.

But the way capitalism works, that wouldn’t stop my health insurance costs from going up 10% per year. That would just allow Healthcare companies to put the difference in their pockets.

I made the correction to healthcare company, my bad.

Anyhow, there’s no question litigation is certainly a huge part of increased healthcare costs. I don’t understand why people think that tort reform would help our bottom line when there’s no reason for the insurance companies to stop raping the general public.

I guess what I’m saying is that their bottom line would certainly be helped, but I don’t see any savings getting passed along to anyone else. There’s no reason for them to.

Of course there are frivolous plaintiffs, just like there are shitty health care providers. Of course, there will be folks at the margins who will try to take advantage on either side.

But even if your “hundreds to a handful” perspective is remotely accurate on the cases you see (which I seriously doubt, especially given the incentives of defense attorneys to blow smoke to their clients about the merits of cases so they can keep collecting fees) and even if your perspective is reflective of the system as a whole, there are good reasons to enforce standards of care and afford plaintiffs the right to discover what might have gone wrong when someone dies or has been seriously harmed under suspicious circumstances. Health care providers (and their insurers) have tremendous advantages over individual plaintiffs (the ability to hire full time nurses like you as experts is only the tip of the iceberg, as is the fact that so many people are too crushed to even think about a lawsuit at such a time). None of which is to mention that the system was designed and has been tweaked over the course of 200 years to ensure that frivolous cases are tossed as early as possible. Yet you don’t even start to make the case that there’s a
systemic imbalance one way or another.

Instead you post what reads as a shitty O’Reilly talking points memo that essentially insults every person who’s ever made laws in this country (they all must be idiots who can’t implement a system that approaches fairness), every judge (all of them fools who don’t know how to apply Rule 11, 12(b)(6), and summary judgment standards or otherwise do their jobs), every Plaintiff’s attorney in the country (all crooks, of course), and even the defense bar that pays you, too (why do these morons keep letting their clients get steamrolled by crooks?).

feels a little off-base to go after the witness here.  CLTIL, if i understand her bio, is 20+ years actually in healthcare on the front lines.  her testimony qualifies as expert.

i may be wrong, but i’m catching a resistance to tort reform.  if so, what’s wrong with a ‘loser pays court costs’ system?  seems like a sensible way to rein in frivolous lawsuits and thus rein in insurance cost which would make healthcare more affordable.

i expect to hear an argument about restricting civil liberties.. but eventually you need to pick one utopia or the other:  unfettered tort litigation or more affordable healthcare.  why not try (b) if only to break the inertia on this subject.  the one thing all agree on is that current system can be improved so why not try to improve it.  (instead of bitching about it and demonizing the real people work within the existing system.)

“but eventually you need to pick one utopia or the other:  unfettered tort litigation or more affordable healthcare.”

As I mentioned earlier, there is absolutely zero reason to think that insurance companies would lower costs to consumers if they have to pay out less in settlements. I’m not sure where this notion that insurance companies are fair and benevolent comes from.

Peter, I am not making a case…I’m not a lawyer.  I am telling you what I have seen with my own 2 unbiased eyes.  I can’t speak to defense attorneys as a whole blowing smoke to keep collecting fees, because ours are overburdened and work their asses off to gather the FACTS and present them to our client to do whatever they wish with them. 

But I do know that I have more work than I know what to do with.  I look at thousand of pages of medical records and summarize them in their entirety.  It’s black and white facts, not some f**king New Yorker opinion article.

Of course I know there are shitty healthcare providers, and being a non-shitty one myself  I want them to pay for their wrongs… but you need to get your head out of the clouds and realize there’s shitty EVERYBODY out there, not just your so-called victims of big business.

I just think we all need to hear both sides of the story, that’s all.  Things are not always as they are said to be. 

You know, before this job I spent 2 years reviewing hundreds of the 9/11 first responders cases.  Firefighter, cops, all the heroes.  That was incredibly draining and difficult.  Also incredibly disheartening as to once again, people going after something that is not warranted.  Outright lying to get a piece of some pie.  I have nothing but respect for these honorable professions, but there’s no honor in deceit.

If the newspaper says it’s going to be sunny all day, and I look out my door and see a pouring rain, I’m not grabbing my sunglasses.  I’m taking my umbrella. 

It’s called reality, bub.  You can throw all the vocab you want at me, but I’m taking my umbrella today.

Heard you the first time. Thx.

Thank you for that self-edit….much better.  Makes me think there’s hope for you yet, Frownie!