No one is talking about taking away your right to sue. Look at the Texas plan, which is working and attracting many more high quality physicians to the state, as well as reducing overall frivolous lawsuits.
What should happen is limiting the "gold mine" jury awards (in some cases several tens of millions of dollars) for "pain and suffering" above and beyond compensation for continuing medical costs and treatment related to the purported injury. There is currently a huge incentive for plaintiff's attorneys to go after the "deep pockets" (i.e., they sue everyone) to rack up an award, because in the end they are going to get 30-40% of the purse.
Many, if not most, malpractice claims arise not from true malpractice (your so-called "blown call"), but for people who either didn't have an expected outcome (which they think constitutes malpractice) or from minor inconveniences because they didn't like the way a doctor talked to them. This has been studied extensively. Often, the indemnifying party will force the physician to settle these "nuisance" cases, regardless of the technical merit of the case, and the physician will be required to report this to the state licensing board.
This is madness.
Personally, I've not yet been named in a suit. I've not even been deposed or asked to testify in a case. I know it's inevitable, and it taints how I practice medicine. I am often forced to play the "what if" game, despite knowing that the likelihood of that "what if" being true is very low. This adds money to your bill. That's a fact. And, once your cap has been met, it's coming out of your pocket. If that's the system you like, so be it.
Now, as far as your other comments, I have to make complex medical decisions on a daily basis that require analysis of intricate and multifactorial analyses of laboratory data, clinical tests, recognizing important changes in vital signs and clinical signs and symptoms, and a multitude of other variables too numerous to recount here. I perform invasive procedures that, if done improperly, can result in potentially lifelong or even life-ending complications to the person I'm trying to help. I do this, again, daily. My training, beyond four years of undergraduate work, was four years of medical school, four years of residency, and one year of fellowship. I'm approximately $140,000 in debt from my medical school loans. During the five years post-medical school graduation continuing to learn and perfect my craft, I averaged about $48,000 year in salary... which works out to about $14/hour considering the amount of time I've worked.
I'm not diminishing the fact that police officers and members of the armed forces don't go out and put their life on the line everyday, and often have to deal and effectively interact with a public that is "at its worst". But, to insinuate that their level of training, which is an apples-to-oranges comparison to begin with, is even remotely on par with what I've endured to get where I am is a bit insulting.
I occasionally hear this same argument from nurses, who again are highly trained and critically involved in the patient's overall treatment plan. But, the fact is, the buck doesn't stop with the nurse. And, having that incredibly level of responsibility being fully in charge of what happens to someone's life while they are in the hospital is something that, I respectfully yet sternly will tell you, is something you cannot fathom until you experience it.
So, they system is broken. It is not the fault of the physicians who collect a relative pittance, in my opinion, in comparison to what sacrifices they make for it. Furthermore, I will tell you that if you punish doctors by further limiting reimbursements, you will not only completely disincentivize young, bright, hopeful pre-med students from going into the field, you will also cut-off the flow of the 25% of highly-trained foreign doctors entering the country seeking jobs here. That's right. Nearly 1/4th of the 800,000 practicing physicians in the U.S. are foreign-trained. The COGME anticipates that there will be a 200,000 (that's not a typo) physician shortage by the year 2020.
Ask yourself this: do you want less-qualified, less-trained individuals making those same life and death decisions? If you don't fix the tort system in the U.S. and you cut reimbursements to disincentivize young hopeful kids from pursuing this long, arduous path, that's what you're going to get. You're going to get a system that tries to put everyone in "the box", diminishes the individual patient and their problems, and you'll have to hope for the best when you set foot in the hospital... even more than you are doing so now...
~Dr. Imago
