Well, just take a look at what’s happening to medicine. Also note how medical costs for pets have remained steady despite similar technological advances:
Pain and suffering awards would also boost malpractice suits against vets, making care more expensive and less accessible, just as big lawsuit awards have done to our own health care. American doctors, burdened by nearly $30 billion a year in malpractice insurance premiums, practice “defensive” medicine that involves ordering more tests, referrals and procedures than they might otherwise. Individual vets, by contrast, spend no more than a few thousand dollars a year on malpractice insurance and rarely have to worry about defensive procedures, which in part explains why procedures for pets like hip replacement surgery often cost far less than comparable surgery for humans, though the underlying technology is often the same. Despite technological advances that have dramatically expanded the scope of pet care, the cost of basic veterinary services have risen little compared to our own skyrocketing medical costs. And though tort lawyers argue that we need big court judgments to prod doctors to be more diligent, there’s no evidence that without such judgments veterinary care in America is inadequate or slipshod.
Related posts:
- Are juries getting smarter?
- “Uniquely American tort laws” contributing to health costs
- Why do doctors practice defensive medicine?
- John McCain so gets it
- Medical malpractice verdicts
- Defensive medicine in the news
- Physicians don’t trust the malpractice system and why doctors order too many tests
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{ 1 comment }
Although pet health insurance is available, it is not widespread, and in some communities almost no clients have insurance for their pet’s medical costs.
Therefore there are some very real incentives for veterinarians to keep their costs affordable for clients who are paying the entire amount out of pocket. If it gets too expensive, a lot of people simply will not seek care for their pet, and there goes any opportunity for the vet to earn a fee. And any veterinarian could probably tell you about clients who will have an animal euth’d rather than pay a couple thousand dollars for surgery.
I’m not sure why this article is trying to pin it all on defensive medicine or the lack thereof. It seems to me that the intrusion of health insurance is by far the bigger factor here in the disparity of costs.
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