Can someone explain the health care 'crisis' to me?

[mjkidd]

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Holding the doctor "to the same standard" is an attractive principle. Pretty. It sparkles. But a lawsuit would do little to change medical practice, at least not more than a talk with an administrator, "hey, here's what happened," which is what we did. Lawsuits will not change the quality of health care, they just inflate the size of corporate legal departments and butt covering measures. We did not see my father's death as an opportunity to win the lottery, though if a judge could order him back to life, we'd reconsider.

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Of course it would do little to change medical practice. But that's not the point. If a doctor causes someone harm through a negligent error, that person deserves to be compensated. It's not about punishment or preventing future errors; it's about recouping the value of what the doctor's mistake cost the victim of the mistake.