THE REASON THE MALPRACTICE PROBLEM EXISTS | 2003-01-25
Medical care is being destroyed because of malpractice suits. In Florida, an obstetrician pays two hundred thousand dollars - yes, I said two hundred thousand dollars! -- each year for malpractice insurance.
The excuse for these runaway malpractice suits is that it is the only way to keep doctors honest.
Lawyers say that malpractice lawsuits are the only way to punish bad doctors today.
That is true. Doctors cover up for other doctors, so you can't convict them in criminal court.
Medical associations routinely protect bad doctors to a criminal extent. You cannot find out what your doctor did wrong from a medical association. The medical associations openly abet criminal doctors who want to hide their past.
So instead of jailing the really awful doctors or exposing them, we use these hideously expensive malpractice suits as our only means of fighting back. The result is that every doctor pays more malpractice insurance and passes the cost on to us.
Instead of demanding that any physician who covers up for another go to jail, the people have settled for malpractice suits that are making medical costs prohibitive.