>--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
>You forgot to quote the part where I said that the right-wing
>anecdote machine thrives on pretending that extraordinary things are
>actually quite ordinary, when they're not. In this instance, your
>view of litigation driving medical practice is way overblown.
>
>Where the right stands on this is irrelevant.
No it's not. The point I'm now making for the third time is that your anecdotal evidence of litigation massively distorting U.S. medical practice emerges from the right-wing propaganda mill, and you're recycling it uncritically. They have a reason for pushing it - they want to shield docs and hospitals from liability for the usual monetary reasons. I can't imagine why you're playing along.
> Neither of us knows
>the extent to which this happens. But when professionals are made
>accountable to external bodies without specific expertise, it will
>do no good. If doctors are as bad as you say, the answer is not to
>call in the lawyers to do the regulating.
In a civilized country, there'd be outside audit boards consisting of medical and other experts that monitored the performance of providers, with necessary investigative and disciplinary powers. We're nowehere near that in the U.S. But the question right now is do you take away the right to sue or keep it? Achieving a civilized system isn't in the cards right now, but we can keep trying.
>Meanwhile, the US medical sector offers probably the worst value
>for money in the whole world. Socialised medicine is not the
>most difficult argument for the left by a long shot. So why are
>you all retreating behind tactical support for a litigeous
>culture that probably harms health care? (Even if neither Doug nor
>me can quantify the extent of that harm.)
Why can't people do two things at once, and why do you suggest they can't? You can oppose the Bush admin's "tort reform" as the insurance/medical industry industry dream it is and still agitate for a single-payer system. No one thinks the status quo is very admirable, but one can oppose changes that make it worse.
Doug