Why Free HealthCare Dooms Our Survival...

QUOTE:

"I was asked to testify for the defense in a case of a young man who had an intracranial hemorrhage while he was in the hospital for gall bladder surgery. He was only in his twenties, and forget to tell anyone about his raging cocaine habit.

"Two days after his routine gall bladder surgery, he had a devastating intracranial hemorrhage, but he survived.

"Now for the un-initiated, outside of a congenital vascular anomaly (avm, aneurysm) cocaine is the number one cause of spontaneous intracranial hemorrhage in young people these days. Even though he had been doing cocaine in the hospital the day after surgery, and his blood pressure had been very difficult to control for that reason, the so-called judge supressed the cocaine testimony because it was "prejudicial". It would have given the jury the "wrong idea" about the patient.

"It made it look as though the general surgeons brought this P.O.S. in and tried to kill him. $3.6 million for him. Oh yea, Medicaid patient. They weren't going to make much more than expenses on this case anyway.

"The tort system in this country will be the cause of the next revolution..."

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Peace_through_Weakness

If you're going to lift wholesale someone's comment from another forum, at least link to it, and give attribution.

As convincing an argument as can be made by 'some guy on some boating forum somewhere' can make, I'll still make my own judgment based on the facts I've seen.

We waste hundreds of millions of dollars on executive pay alone in our current system. That's money that could be better spent doing...anything else. Fucking use that money to buy a CT scanner for every man woman and child in the country, I don't care.

Mark's argument doesn't seem to have anything to do with "our survival", it would seem that some moron did a bunch of coke, had himself an aneurysm and sued, judge threw out the evidence of the REASON for the aneurysm, costing the hospital the case.

What any of that has to do with free healthcare is beyond me, aside from the fact that the patient was a medicaid patient. All that implies in this case is "he is poor".

Well, he's not poor anymore, and will no longer be eligible for Medicaid, so what's your point again?

Yes, on this site you can mention other Forums, not just copy them.
M. Heppelwhite

"...If you're going to lift wholesale someone's comment from another forum, at least link to it, and give attribution...As convincing an argument as can be made by 'some guy on some boating forum somewhere' can make, I'll still make my own judgment based on the facts I've seen..."

Yes, but for a very different reason than mere attribution. Do you doubt him?

(It IS the quote in its entirety, BTW).

I don't know how one could make a judgment from a more-pure and more-transparent source than from 'some guy on some boating forum somewhere'. This lawsuit never would have come to light to Wolfeboronians if it hadn't been for an off-topic comment by a boat owner at a boating forum.

He testified in a case that cost the American people dearly, blaming it properly on Liberal Judges and the absence of tort reform by a Congress and Senate today composed largely of LAWYERS!

When 500 TONS of cocaine is impounded by the Coast Guard, the price of US street cocaine doesn't blink: Presently America's rivers (and Lake Winnipesaukee?) run with cocaine's metabolites.

"...judge threw out the evidence of the REASON for the aneurysm, costing the hospital the case...What any of that has to do with free healthcare is beyond me, aside from the fact that the patient was a Medicaid patient. All that implies in this case is "he is poor"...Well, he's not poor anymore, and will no longer be eligible for Medicaid, so what's your point again...?"

There are many points, one of which is that the jury was withheld information. (The norm, in our corrupt—and corrupting—legal system).

IF he's poor, how can be on Medicaid and still sustain a "raging cocaine habit"?

This miscreant will likely corrupt others with his "raging" cocaine habit. (Spreading criminality, and the costs for FREE Healthcare to the rest of us).

This miscreant will likely die eventually of his "raging" cocaine habit. (Not that he was a particularly worthwhile member of society in the first place).

You're saying the hospital took the hit.

I'm saying the HealthCare industry took the hit—and we ALL pay for it in the end. Is there a better model than just ONE county in Florida that has lost BILLIONS in Federal HealthCare fraud?

"...We waste hundreds of millions of dollars on executive pay alone in our current system..."

That's for shareholders to decide, not for Neo-Marxist Academicians and the worshipping masses.

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Peace_through_Weakness

xrayspx's picture

I'd written a whole comment, but trashed it, it is probably worth more of a story.

Here's the thing, what the hell does this have to do with people getting free healthcare? Mark put in as an aside that not only was this guy a cokehead, he was a Medicaid patient. It's tangential to the problem at hand. It's meant to imply. "AND, AND, he's fucking poor...OF COURSE". See?

So while the real problem is that there was evidently a moron judge who threw out ridiculously obvious evidence that would immediately have the whole case dismissed, you are making it be about free healthcare somehow?

And now the disjointed ranting about cocaine in general? Yeah, shitty drug, don't do it kids. We can't even keep the shit out of our presidents, jeez. But still, nothing to do with free healthcare.

And no, I didn't say the hit was absorbed by the hospital. The hit would have been absorbed by their respective insurance companies, with a big huge premium cherry on top for the lawyers to fight over.

The healthcare system is broken in many ways. Doctors are paid overwhelming salaries for their relative skill level, but it's balanced by the fact that 30+% of that gross might go to insurance.

I was talking to a doctor, and he's concerned that if we have free health care, since there would be one standard payer, his gross pay might go down. I helpfully pointed out that with healthcare reform should come tort reform. His insurance premiums would drop off a cliff. Even /IF/ (and it's a huge "if") his gross pay goes down, his NET would likely increase from lower insurance payments.

Now. Names, dates of the case, etc. The reason I don't blindly trust the opinion of "Mark from the Internet" is because well, who the fuck is Mark? Where and when was this case, and I'd like to research it.

I'd like to see the evidence the judge threw out, because it seems rather stupid that he should do so. I don't know how this makes him "liberal" as you and Mark say, but if he threw out the equivalent of a videotape of a murderer killing his victim because "it might bias the jury", then he's definitely an asshat.

Will you guys stop calling it FREE healthcare? Use your head. It CANNOT be FREE! Somebody will have to pay for it. The only ones for whom it will be free are those that already get it free. Those of us working will be the ones to pay.

Nobody's paying for it in Canada!

:)