The train-wreck up north

"Access to a waiting list is not access to health care" --Chief Justice Beverly McLachlin, Supreme Court of Canada (Chaoulli v. Quebec)

Last year, the Canadian government issued a series of reports to address the outcry over long wait times for critical tests, procedures and surgeries. Over a two year period:

  • Wait times for knee replacements dropped from 440 to 307 days.
  • Wait times for hip replacements dropped from 351 to 257 days.
  • Wait times for cataract surgeries dropped from 311 to 183 days.
  • Wait times for MRIs dropped from 120 to 105 days.
  • Wait times for CT scans dropped from 81 to 62 days.
  • Wait times for bypass surgeries dropped from 49 to 48 days.

These "improvements" are unheard of in the United States. Waiting 48 days for a bypass or 105 days for an MRI could very well be a death sentence.

The public has fought for 50-plus years to build a publicly funded Medicare system that they’re now telling us isn’t quite working for them. -- Health Care in Canada Round Table 2005

A Commonwealth Fund 2005 International Health Policy Survey (slide 16) showed that 41% of patients in the UK and 33% of patients in Canada waited more than 4 months for non-emergency surgery,. Only 8% American patients waited more than 4 months for surgery.

Meanwhile, in Hamilton, Ontario, hospitals are receiving an infusion of cash to cut wait times for diagnostic procedures and certain surgeries, which have become intolerable.

And these are precisely the type of government-controlled health-care systems proposed by the Democratic candidates. Not only are they destined for failure, they will cost thousands of lives. And with the UK and Canada as examples, everyone can see the train-wreck coming.

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What Democrats won’t tell you about Healthcare reform

 
Namely, that frivolous medical malpractice lawsuits are one of the biggest causes for the rapid rise in healthcare costs. Why won’t Democrats tell you that? Because trial lawyers uniformly back Democrats in order to fight tort reform and maintain their multi-billion dollar revenue stream.

Watchdog site Trial Lawyers Inc. defines the term “tort tax”:

While [aggressive lawsuits have] been a bonanza for Trial Lawyers, Inc., it has been a drain on the American economy and a serious threat to the livelihood and lifestyle of many Americans. America’s tort system costs over $200 billion annually; even assuming that the underlying lawsuits have merit, much of this cost is wasteful and excessive—at least $87 billion, according to the president’s Council of Economic Advisors.

The overall cost of this “tort tax” on our economy over the next ten years will be more than $3.6 trillion... almost triple the size of the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts combined.

Meritless lawsuits:

...Trial Lawyers, Inc.'s medical-malpractice lawsuits are legion: of the 46,000 members of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 76 percent have been sued at least once, 57 percent at least twice, and 41.5 percent three times or more. And the litigation industry tends to file far more cases than actually have merit: nearly half of malpractice suits — 49.5 percent — are dropped, dismissed, or settled without payment. Indeed, in a study of medical-malpractice cases filed against New York hospitals, the Harvard Medical Practice Group found that in the majority of medical-malpractice claims, the plaintiff exhibited no medical injury whatsoever; the plaintiff was injured by doctor negligence only 17 percent of the time.

The High Costs of Malpractice Liability:

So if Trial Lawyers, Inc.'s suits against doctors are wide-ranging, and often meritless, just how much do they cost? By 2003, medical-malpractice liability costs in the United States had reached an astounding $26 billion annually. That staggering sum represents a 2,000 percent increase over costs in 1975. At 12 percent per year, the growth rate in medical malpractice costs since 1975 is four times the rate of inflation and twice the rate of medical-care inflation.

In jury trials, million-dollar verdicts are now the norm. Fifty-two percent of all awards exceed $1 million while the average award now weighs in at $4.7 million...

The Investments:

...PAC donations from the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA)—Trial Lawyers, Inc.'s government-relations "home office"—are perennially among the nation's highest to the Democratic Party.[224] Democrats receive 93 percent of ATLA's contributions, which helps explain why every Democratic senator opposed the president's medical-malpractice reform bill in the last Congress.[225]

PAC gifts, however, only scratch the surface of litigation-industry giving, which Trial Lawyers, Inc.'s leaders and their firms bundle and distribute directly to candidates. Senator John Edwards's presidential campaign was almost wholly funded by the lawsuit industry..

Ann Coulter adds:

...the Democratic Party treats doctors like they're Klan members. They wail about how much doctors are paid and celebrate the trial lawyers who do absolutely nothing to make society better, but swoop in and steal from the most valuable members of society.

Maybe doctors could get the Democrats to like them if they started suing their patients.

It's only a matter of time before the best and brightest students forget about medical school and go to law school instead. How long can a society based on suing the productive last?

(Has anyone else noticed the nonexistence of a charitable organization known as "Lawyers Without Borders"?)

[My ex-roomate, now a Doctor] makes $380 for an emergency appendectomy, or one-ten-thousandth of what John Edwards made suing doctors like her, and one-fourth of what John Edwards' hairdresser makes for a single shag cut.

Edwards made $30 million bringing nonsense lawsuits based on junk science against doctors. To defend themselves from parasites like Edwards, doctors now pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical malpractice insurance every year.

If we're going to reform healthcare, I’d suggest we start with the trial lawyers and cap every single form of medical malpractice lawsuit.

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Francisco Castro is still dead. Or not.

 
Earlier today, Snapped Shot spotted a press release from the AP that appears to anticipate the death -- not the just-announced retirement -- of Fidel.

Fausta has a great roundup of news and links. Don't miss her shredding of the BBC's writers, who appear to be auditioning for a slot on the SNL staff with their snort-worthy satire.

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Line o' the day: Joe Stalin breaks out in a grin

 
3 Wood, writing at Jammie Wearing Fool, wins our ultra-prestigious Line o' the Day Award.

Here's an indication of how Hillary looks at America:

"How Hillary's plan affects:

• Women
• African-Americans
• Americans with Disabilities
• Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
• Hispanics
• Seniors"

Look who is missing from that group. White males, of course.

When you read through those sections, the class envy and special interest group pandering is enough to make you sick. These people see the country as a combination of special interest groups, all of whom are dependent upon handouts from Big Brother.

Somewhere, Joe Stalin is smiling.

Not to mention: Karl Marx and Trotsky have engaged in a sultry, erotic waltz.

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Nationalized Healthcare Success Story #4,323

 
London's Daily Mail:

Dentists are under pressure not to treat children as the NHS cannot afford to fund their care...

Health trusts want dentists to concentrate on targeting adult patients who have to pay for treatment, according to a pressure group.

The claims, to a Commons health select committee, come as figures show that one in three children has not visited a dentist for up to two years...

Kids lose their baby teeth anyhow - what's the big deal?

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Hillary vows to tax citizens who don't buy HillaryCare™

 
Gateway Pundit heralds the rise of U.S. Socialism in the form of HillaryCare v2.0. The New York Times and ABC News report:

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., this morning left open the possibility that, if elected, her government would garnish the wages of people who didn't comply with her health care plan...

"We will have an enforcement mechanism, whether it's that (garnishing wages) or it's some other mechanism through the tax system or automatic enrollments," Clinton said in an appearance on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos".

It's especially disturbing since Hillary won't even allow the release of millions of documents related to her first, aborted attempt at nationalized health care. Millions of those documents remain hidden from public view.

I think a better name for HillaryCare, in the unlikely event it comes to pass, would be ClusterCare™.

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