About universal care, it is you who are half right. Yes there will be some sort of universal program, but rest assured the ability for patients to sue will be left intact. It will be a “worst of both worlds” situation for the docs.

I thing that is why Edwards (and other dems) plan retains a role for the private sector – that way there will be someone left to sue. If it was a purely federal play, litigation would be much more difficult.

Luckily or unluckily for all, though, we’ll soon have universal care and a no-fault style system, so you’ll get half your wish.

When I said decimated, I wasn’t just talking about the financial aspect of liability. That’s not actually the main issue, in my opinion.

The main issue is the constant fear we must work in. The ever-present threat of being hauled into court for a bad outcome or an angry patient is constantly over our heads. It has ruined the doctor patient relationship and turned the job into misery. No amount of money can or should make up for that.

How can we at once care for a patient while knowing that he can lawyer up at any minute and drag us and our families through the dirt?

I now work for a medical device company. There is still of course the risk that the company can get sued, but my personal risk is minimal. Liability goes to the corporation and its insurers, not to me and my family.

I sleep much better at night now! Many, many more who can will follow a similar path. My only fear is that there will soon be no docs left to use my companies’ products!

NeuroMD

http://www.physicianrecruiting.com/jobs/NS/nc?PHPSESSID=1ebaacb09849c75b8ae8b9d2c9b2f878

(Given that, I may have undershot the number)

Nationwide:

http://www.centerjd.org/Specialists%20Income.pdf

Let the hyperbole flow man! Stop paying them enormous chunks of cash money and see how brave they are.

Please cite a reference for this supposed fact, and also what state.

We should all be so “decimated.”

He made his fortune largely by suing OBGYNS on CP cases using flimsy, and subsequently disproven, evidence. The “experts” he used where highly questionable- you can unfortunately pay almost anyone to say anything.

Mr. Edwards is emblematic of a tort system that has determined that intracranial neurosurgeons and high-risk obstetricians simply carry an unacceptible risk of liability. Period. When the liability costs exceed the potential income from any venture, it simply cannot be rationally performed.

John Edwards has made millions extorting these bravest and most vulnerable members of the medical profession, and perversely wrapping that extortion in a false illusion of justice and “fighting for the little man.”

There is no doubt that he’s an effective litigator- but thank goodness the presidential election is NOT a courtroom. The American electorate, particularly the primary electorate, is not a sympathetic and uneducated jury for Mr. Edwards to manipulate. He is trailing in the polls, despite sinking in a fortune of his own ill-gotten gains.

If John Edwards does manage to get elected, it will be nothing less than the triumph of evil over justice.

-NeuroMD

re: “It’s interesting you question my statistics when you provide literally none at all for your claims. Do you miss the irony in that?”

Don’t blame me for pointing out you provide incomplete (and uncited) statistics.