Health care costs an estimated 1.5 trillion.

A study in 2006 by Price Waterhouse Coopers, performed for America’s Health Insurance Plans, estimated that costs associated with medical liability account for between 7 percent and 11 percent of health insurance premium dollars; direct costs of litigation and widespread practice of defensive medicine increase healthcare spending by 10 percent, with a disproportionate increase in outpatient and physician costs.

Source:
http://www.aaos.org/news/bulletin/janfeb07/clinical2.asp

1,500,000,000,000 * .10 = $150,000,000,000

Last response. You going to believe a bureaucracy or you going to believe 93% of physicians, its representative organization and their statement of facts – forgetting your’s truly for the minute?

Believe what? You haven’t shown me anything about what 93% of physicians think. Feel free to post anything concerning the costliness of defensive medicine. And by that I mean a number. I’ve reviewed your links again and there’s nothing there. The CBO is something you’ve used before as a reliable source, so now all of sudden it can’t be trusted? Their study sources mostly people in the health industry anyways.

But how costly? According to the CBO, it’s not a big deal.

Last response. You going to believe a bureaucracy or you going to believe 93% of physicians, its representative organization and their statement of facts – forgetting your’s truly for the minute?

I’ll leave it you to decide. I don’t have that kind of faith in a government made up of mainly attorneys; another reason this issue has never been fairly addressed.

Sorry, when it comes to reform at the national level, I don’t think anecdotes are very useful. Like I said, I’m sure defensive medicine is a problem. But you can’t measure the cost savings of fixing that problem via tort reform. That’s something organizations like the CBO need to study.

King LOL. You’re more hard headed than my kids. What better way to experience something than to experience it yourself? Who do you think the CBO is going to interview? How do you think statistics are gathered? DO you think I’m the only one saying these things?

Since you won’t believe me, head to the emergency room on Friday night and watch for yourself.

One last thing. We can continue to pass links back and forth concerning this issue. I’m telling you from personal experience, the CBO is wrong.

But the only way I could truly prove it to you, the real cost of defensive medicine, is to show you in practice just how disruptive it is to good medical practice. You can not believe how the threat of continual suit is screwing up the business.

Sorry, when it comes to reform at the national level, I don’t think anecdotes are very useful. Like I said, I’m sure defensive medicine is a problem. But you can’t measure the cost savings of fixing that problem via tort reform. That’s something organizations like the CBO need to study.

One last thing. We can continue to pass links back and forth concerning this issue. I’m telling you from personal experience, the CBO is wrong.

But the only way I could truly prove it to you, the real cost of defensive medicine, is to show you in practice just how disruptive it is to good medical practice. You can not believe how the threat of continual suit is screwing up the business.

And since you seem a decent guy, I think you would agree when we were thru with the exercise. I assure you that you and your family are paying a lot more for health cost because of it.

2nd career – corporate American paid me fairly well but there was no purpose other than paying the light bill. I learned, perhaps too late, that if you don’t feel you’re serving a useful purpose, it doesn’t really matter what you’re worth.

Believe it or not, I’m not as hateful or self-serving as I’ve probably led you libs to believe on this board. Though I loathe the liberal ideology and find it morally bankrupt, I find few of you I don’t think at least believe you’re pursuing your ideology with good intent.

It’s those that spit in the face of the military, the very ones who give us that freedom of speech, that I truly hate. Think Berkeley, Brattleboro and Boulder.

LOL. Nothing wrong with KFC – you’re probably classier than many doctors I meet. When we get to chickens and butchering, I’ll shut up and let you have the floor. In the meantime, mitosis and cellular respiration are my game.

Fair enough. But I thought you were older?

$150B is the number. If you need the links, I’ll look it up. But trust me, that’s the number the AMA posts; and they consider that conservative. What you’re not discussing and missing is what it is costing the doctors and passing on to the consumer (self insurance).

Listen, I’m aware of those costs. But according to the CBO they are not significant. I’ll repost it:

Evidence from the states indicates that premiums for malpractice insurance are lower when tort liability is restricted than they would be otherwise. But even large savings in premiums can have only a small direct impact on health care spending–private or governmental–because malpractice costs account for less than 2 percent of that spending.(3) Advocates or opponents cite other possible effects of limiting tort liability, such as reducing the extent to which physicians practice “defensive medicine” by conducting excessive procedures; preventing widespread problems of access to health care; or conversely, increasing medical injuries. However, evidence for those other effects is weak or inconclusive.

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdoc.cfm?index=4968#F3

I know few doctors, other than primary care physicians and internists, that think single-payer is a great idea. And I gave you the reasons for that above. It pays more than medicare/medicaid on a general visit, though you’re not supposed to hear that.

And that makes sense, I wouldn’t expect most doctors support single payer.