Medical Malpractice Insurance Proposal Form For Healthcare: Fill & Download for Free

The healthcare in the US is not expensive because is a system designed for profit. If that were the case, hospitals would be following six-sigma quality guidelines and follow evidence based medicine.No.It is because it is a system where EVERYONE profits from waste.1) The doctor profits when he orders unnecessary tests and procedures. BUT if he works for a system where the insurer and the hospital are the same entity (For example, Kaiser Permanente) he may be penalized/rewarded for ordering/denying tests, procedures and referrals even if they are medically necessary.The hospital profits when doctor does (1) and(2) When the good doctor fucks up. See that healthy man that whose sepsis was misdiagnosed and resulted in limb amputations? He becomes a cash cow for the hospital for the rest of his life. If the crappy doctor on the other hand, works for a system such as Kaiser's, he/she will save millions of dollars to the HMO by refusing to order necessary tests and treatments. That is why poor doctors are kept on the job for years, even though according to the National Practitioner Data Bank Public Use File;The vast majority of doctors – 82 percent – have never had a medical malpractice payment since the NPDB was created in 1990.Just 5.9 percent of doctors have been responsible for 57.8 percent of all malpractice payments since 1991, according to data from September 1990 through 2005. Each of these doctors made at least two payments. (Source Public Citizen)But what about frivolous lawsuits? you may say. Tort reform and arbitration have made pretty much impossible to sue a doctor -but to go through that issue is the source of another long post. The reality is that only 3% of valid medical malpractice cases go to trial, and the plaintiff loses 75% of the time. The chances of the hospital having to do a huge payout to a patient are extremely slim. The cost of preventable medical errors is staggering - some estimates put it as high as $780 billion a year (source The economics of health care quality and medical errors. ). Guess who gets the majority of that money - you have it right: The Hospital and doctors. Medical boards all over the country are nothing but cartels safeguarding crappy doctors. Did you prescribe methadone as a pain reliever after a tonsillectomy and the patient dies of an overdose a few days later?. A "public" letter of reprimand will suffice (see Page on ca.gov ). No probation, no suspension. If the case is pretty bad, the good doc will lawyer up and settle for a single act of negligence and leave it at that.BUT! you may say, can't the victim testify or witness the proceeding?THESE HEARINGS, THEIR FINDINGS, THE NAME OF THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY ASSIGNED TO YOUR CASE (IF YOU MAKE IT THAT FAR) ARE ENTIRELY CONFIDENTIAL. Imagine a secret trial in which the prosecutor and the defendant can discuss as good pals what kind of disciplinary actions they would like, and the victim is not even allowed to show how badly harmed they were?. Yup, that is the way the disciplinary hearings from the Medical boards work in the US. In fact, they still are debating whether you, as a patient, should be notified if you good doc is on probation (Your doctor’s on probation: Should you be told?) You get more transparency in your pick of Vietnamese restaurant than of the doctor that makes life and death decisions for you.BUT!! you may say. How about the Insurers? Medicaid? Medicare?. Wouldn't it be in their best interest to improve safety practices and do evidence-based medicine?. Ideally, this would be the case, BUT!!!3) VENDORS do not have any sort of transparency in prices. From medications, to the cost of the band-aid, or a simple test, and you may get staggering differences in price (see A blood test can cost from $10 to $10,000 in Calif. hospitals, according to a study). Insurers negotiate prices with HMO's so this kind of magical math happens all the time.The cynic in me believes that the vendors and the insurers are in cahoots: inflate the price 1000%, and the 20-30% percent patient co-payment alone would shift the majority of the REAL cost to the patient -and even make a tidy profit. The poor fellow with the Bronze plan? please pay up the whole price, credit cards accepted, pronto.Not only that, but if the situation becomes too bad, Insurers can always raise prices. Or in the case of Medicare, instead of going against the powerful AMA and the health insurance and pharmaceutical industry, we start saving money by denying benefits to those who may need it. Prosthetic devices? See Rescind the Medicare proposal restricting access to prosthetic limbs and returning amputees to 1970’s standards of care. Same goes for wheelchairs Stop Medicare from Making Inappropriate Cuts to Complex Wheelchair Accessories. When Medicare goes into full mayhem mode, and refuses to pay for complications generated by easily preventable hospital conditions (see Medicare's no-pay events: Coping with the complications), then the hospitals start releasing the sick patients to SNF (skilled nursing facilities) and saying that the condition was acquired there.But how about the patients?, you may say4) But the patients have also a big responsibility in this whole mess. You have a kick ass program at work? You think nothing of ordering unnecessary tests "just to make sure", and "treating yourself" via chiropractors, accupuncturists and homeopaths, which are nothing but quackery (See Page on sciencebasedmedicine.org and https://www.Page on sciencebasedmedicine.org/acupuncture-doesnt-work/). You overburden hospitals when you to to the ER when nothing is wrong with you, you refuse to vaccinate your children because of something you read on the internet, you bitch when Obamacare rolls in and you say "hands off my health plan", you are the first to demand that undocumented immigrants be forbidden to buy insurance in the exchanges, even though they contribute over $13 billion of dollars to our SS and Medicare systems on a yearly basis, and get less than $1 billion back (See Page on socialsecurity.gov) -and virtually ensure that they only get care in the ER's when their conditions are often lethal and incredibly expensive to treat. In fact, you, the patient, are a very integral part of the problem when you vote and without first getting a basic understanding of the inherent complexity of this matter.As a final note, here is a little reason of by I am so passionate about the subject.This was my husband - a triathlete, a marathon runner - handsome fella uhm?On January 2013, he sprained his ankle and developed a joint infection. His doctor, hurried and careless, told him it was just the flu and did not order any blood work nor cultures, even though he had a textbook presentation of septic arthritis of the ankle joint. Despite constant follow up calls to the hospital, they kept reassuring us that this was expected. The doctor that examined him initially, suspected that he has sepsis, but never told him to go to the ER. By the time we reached the ER he was in full septic and toxic shock from a common strain of Streptococcus pyogenes. A bacteria easily treatable with penicillin.Cost of treating him on time: $30.This is how my husband looks like nowNow, the breakdown of the cost of this errorHospitalization19 days in ICU: between $15,000-$$30,000 day (due to complex presentation, intubation, wound care and dialysis)= $285,000- $570,000141 days of regular hospitalization: on low end, $1975 x $ 141= $278,485Surgical costs (aprox 15 surgeries of 4-6 hours duration each) = Unknown, but average surgery for debridement costs $15,000. I am being conservative at putting the costs of surgery at around $225,00012 weeks of acute rehabilitation: $1,040,000 (and I got this much rehab because I bitched like a rabid dog)Total hospitalization: A conservative cost of $2,113,000Litigation: Our attorney (between experts, court reporters, etc) $150,000Kaiser (let's be conservative and assume they had the same costs as us) = $150,000But Kaiser alone had to pay for their attorney. Assuming the guy worked about 200 hours in the case (which is quite conservative, as the trial alone was about 80 hours), at $400/h, we are talking about $80,000 in fees.Arbitrator: 100 hours at $550/h= $55,000Total legal costs: $495,000Victim gets zero. Arbitration rules -but for insurers!!Anthem, and now Medicare, pay approximately $100,000/year in medical costs for husband. Prosthesis ain't cheap. At 20% copay, we had to pay close to $20,000/year in copays alone, that without including caregiver costs.Husband, an engineer, used to make close to $150,000/year. Luckily we had good LTD insurance, but still, I had to stop working in engineering as the time constraints and cost of care-giving made it impossible to continue working FT. That means that SS will stop receiving close to $620,000 in Medicare and SS taxes from us during our expected work expectancy.So to add it up:Costs of initial hospitalization: $2.1 millionLegal costs: $495,000Insurance costs through husband's lifetime (life expentancy of 75): $3 millionCosts to victims: $600,000 (based on same life expentancy)Loss of Medicare and SS earnings: $620,000Loss of wages: 2.3 million (wife), 1.1 million (husband - I am deducting his disability payments)Total cost to society: $10,215,000 (in 2015 dollars)So you can understand my frustration when PCP's tell me that it would be too cumbersome to test all suspicious cases?. With the cost of Husband's case alone, we would have been able to test and treat more that 300,000 patients.To this date, doctor still practices, despite having been found below the standard of care by the CA medical board. If we are lucky, she will get a public letter of reprimand and that will be it.You on the other hand, will pay dearly, when Medicare goes insolvent, or when your insurance rates increase. All because of the waste.

The reason the GOP doesn't have a replacement plan is because they believe that healthcare is a "commodity" that should have total free market reins. They don't want government to have any part.Their proposal for a replacement is basically allowing private insurers across state lines and caps on medical malpractice damages. If there are any other plans, I am not aware of them. Maybe someone could enlighten me.

Democrats SUCK at explaining to them that universal single payer healthcare will not cost people more- it will actually allow this fictitious family walk away with an estimate of at least $15,000 cash raise in their pocket at the end of the year!It's my best guess estimate, but it’s based on reasonable assumptions. I’d love to see a proper economist do this analysis, but I haven’t been able to find any. If any of my readers can find one it would be appreciated. Here’s some numbers:According to a 2018 report from the Pew Research Center, 52% of American adults live in “middle class” households. The median income of that group was $78,442 in 2016.$28k: The average price a family of 4 will spend on healthcare in 2018. A typical American family of four insured by the most common employer-sponsored health plan can expect to spend more than $28,000 on healthcare in 2018, according to the annual Milliman Medical Index report.The average Canadian pays, between taxes and compulsory insurance 3334 US dollars for healthcare, and about 1400 USD voluntary/out of pocket, for a total of about 4750 USD total.Health resources - Health spending - OECD Data We can assume that Canadians are paying what Americans would be paying if we had universal healthcare.estimate that NYS withholding and federal and FICA adds up to about 33% of our take-home pay deducted in taxes.$78,442 - $28,000 = $50, 442 - (33%)= $33,796 take home pay.versus universal single payer healthcare:$78,442 - $19,000 = $59,442 -(33% )= $39,826 take home paywe’ve just earned ourselves a $6000 raise and now we have healthcare we can use anywhere for any reason at any time and we know we’ll be covered and we can change jobs anytime we want and live anywhere we want to live.But wait, there’s more! Our entire system of household bills and insurances is based on Americans not having healthcare.Our homeowner’s and our auto policies all pay for bodily injury liability. We’re actually buying health insurance for victims of accidents that might not have any. We don't need that anymore- everyone is covered. We save that money.Worker’s compensation is now obsolete. Everyone is covered so we get to pocket that money too and our local government don't have to pay it for their employees either.Our schools and municipalities all have bodily injury liability coverage for all their trucks and equipment and buildings etc. and they don't need to pay worker’s comp either. Our local taxes go way down, not up. They even go down for people on a fixed income that are already on Medicare.Medical malpractice insurance goes way down for all our doctors and hospitals- everyone is covered, the patient isn't stuck with huge bills from a medical error, there’s no reason to automatically sue. Lawsuits are now only really necessary in instances of genuine neglect or malpractice- like it should be.Hospitals save money on their employee health insurance and worker’s comp and their bodily injury liability insurance to make up for the heavy discounts they will now have to give the single payer.Courts and the legal system shrinks to a shadow if it's former self- our taxes go down there too.American working families stand to save thousands of dollars a year with universal healthcare and that’s actual money in their pockets for them to spend! If we can tax the wealthy and make them pay for it (as Sanders and Warren have proposed), the savings will be even greater and the working class may get back all the wage increases we’ve been denied since the 1980’s.