Obama on Medical Malpractice Ins

In Obama adress to the Senate on September 9, 2009, he acknowledged the problem that Doctors face with the high cost of malpractice insurance, which brought Republicans to their feet with enthusiasm and applause! You could also hear the groans when Obama continued by assuring the audience that he would consider doing pilot tests in some area of the country while stating ” that tort reform isn’t a silver bullet”! Unfortunately, he made no move toward implementing Tort Reform in this Health Care/Insurance Reform bill. To be fair, we must remember that the Tort Lawyers are mostly Democrats that account for a huge chunk of money that goes into the democrats coffers. Heaven forbid, we should expect Obama to even consider any action that could be threatening to the income of the Tort Lawyers!

There are many areas where malpractice insurance creates difficulties for physicians. On a business level, we have the high cost of malpractice insurance, the low reimbursement rate from medicare, their ability to pay their overhead and still make a decent living. Here food for thought:

There is a Orthopedic Surgeon in NY, he stated that his malpractice cost him $200,000 a year. For a hip replacement, medicare reimbursement is $1,350 (approximately), which includes surgery, before and after care. He suggested that we should take a look at what a tune up costs for you car:

Example: Dealer 30k, 60k or 90k mile tune-ups can run from $250 for 3-4 hours of labor and basic maintenance, to over $1,000 at places with high labor costs and additional maintenance services, such as timing belt replacement.

What is the difference between the number of years for education and students loans between a Doctor and a Mechanic?
What is the difference in the overhead between the two?
How many Medicare hip replacement surgery would it take to cover his malpractice insurance?
At what point must the doctor discontinue medicare patients in order to produce enough income to stay in business?
Do you see something wrong with this picture?

As humans both have the same value, as a business person both have different experience and expenses.