Since in those cases, as a witness, you were almost certainly barred from hearing any testimony but your own, or seeing any of the evidence entered, nor do you know what the particular statutes say, would it be fair to call your opinion. . . uninformed?

Sometimes the law dictates a result you don’t agree with. That’s not a problem with the system that applies the law, it’s a problem with your legislature. If you are too lazy to lobby to change it, then the problem is your own.

But with all the legal knowledge you’ve gained from your “few times” dealing with the legal system, you’ve got it all figured out!!

Your powers of perception are unparalleled.

“Yes, medicine is all one big happy family, all working together for the greater good in a field of butterflies surrounded by a forest of happy nymphs.”

Big happy family no. But when the $hit hits the fan we work together for the best of the patient. If you had ever been to a real code (not the TV BS) you would have some clue as to what I am talking about. The few times I have delt with “legal” processes while trying to do what’s best for the patient, I have been utterly disgusted with how slow, adversial, self-centered, and frankly downright SCARED of making a decision you guys have to accept responsibility for down the road.

I’ll repeat – you can drive that car off the lot. The fact you’re scared to doesn’t change the fact you are permitted to.

What planet you live on CJD. My cart sits behind a razor topped fence until after I pay.

Of course I think your typical “legal” statement hit the nail right on the head of the difference between the collaborative nature of medicine versus the adversial nature of law.

Self-aggrandizement will get you nowhere. The answer to your first question is no. Physicians perform a job function. If every physician turns every problem associated with a patient into the equivalent of every mechanic turning a problem with a Hyundai into that associated with a McLaren F1 then the problem lies [fill in the black]. Just like there are no miracles and no bad outcomes – both are simply the faces placed on an incomplete understanding of the physical system under study…every person and their maladies are not race cars. If you do not know enough to differentiate the Hyundai than the race car and if your methods are not precise enough to aid in this distinction than the problem lies with you and not with the underlying system under study. Centuries of scientific advancement with understanding the underlying systems that govern the biophysical human condition and some would have us believe that the human body is as mysterious as the source of thunder and lightening was to the ancient Greeks.

You talk about supply side restrictions, well I say let’s get rid of these and flood the market with doctors. Yet, if someone needs their life saved and I am the only doctor around at this time I want to be able to charge 3,000,000 dollars or 50 percent of their wage for the rest of their life.

Just like every mechanic would like to charge for fixing your Mercedes if you are in the desert around with no other mechanic for hundreds of miles. The problem is, the health care market is more akin to the desert than an oasis when it comes to competition engendered by a sufficient supply of providers (the key word here is sufficient).

I want to charge what my service is actually worth to a person if there are going to be a lot of doctors. An you know what … since you can’t spend money when your dead I bet I could profit a lot more from a system like this. You see crim. it all balances out.

I would have no problems with you charging what you wished under the following caveats – removal of supply side restrictions and removal of oligopolistic market cornering restrictions. You see, when you use the power of big government to corner a particular market (e.g. health care) than you should at least not cry when the same power of big government is used to pimp you to another special interest group. Under a free market system you could charge what you wished but you might be out of business if you charged beyond what the other dozens or hundreds of providers in your local area were charging.

If you have a pulmonary embolism I can give you the drug to save your life, but the sicker you are the more I am going to charge because that would be FAIR economics just like lifting the restrictions on supply.

Yes. If my C5 has a faulty wiring harness that could deploy the supplemental restraint system in an untimely manner, thereby being life threating, I could take it to a mechanic to have it fixed. The thing is, because of much less onerous government intervention, I could take it to one of hundreds of places to have the work done. The health care providers are now feeling and have felt for some time, the bite of the same government power that they used to corner the health care delivery market (and no chiropractic is not health care it is a fraud – let us put that red herring to rest before it even shows up).

But then when you get compared to a machanic you want us all to know how there really is no comparison whatsoever.

There really isn’t! If you don’t value life anymore than you do a piece of equipement then you are in the wrong business. But thanks for spelling it out for us. There use to be a time when I never would have dreamed a Physician who has 12 plus years of education could possibly be compared to the local mechanic who fixes my car. Seems strange you are the one’s who do all the comparing.

According to some of you highly trained people you even compare what you do (save lives) presumably, to being nothing more valuable than being able to get a drink of water…How sad!

Actually, you can drive that car off the lot and there isn’t anything they can do about it but sue you for the bill.

“Insurance doesn’t work like that. I get paid months later, after I beg for it for a while. Occassionally we get stiffed.”

You get “stiffed” because you and the insurer have a dispute over the bill. Not because it can’t pay, you can’t find it, it gave you false info about who it was. You have no idea what it’s like to rely on individuals to pay your bills.

“If I am grossly negligent, I can lose everything I have.”

So can a mechanic. Do a faulty brake job and let those bad brakes result in an accident, you think you won’t be sued?

“If I try to compare my insurance contracts to my colleagues, that is considered collusion, and it is illegal. “

No it’s not. Why do you think that? People compare contracts all the time.

“A litle thought before you post, please… “

Indeed.