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Off Topic Chatter Forget Bushisms, Biden Gaffes, We have Obama blunders
931 messages, Last post on Nov 26, 2009 at 11:30 AM
You are in the Off Topic Chatter Forum. Your Host is KarenS
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| News flash. Heard Obama taking credit yesterday for the appearance of uptrend in the economy! Instead of Blaming Bush for the economy ups he slipped and took credit for it himself. | |
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Replying to: gagrice (Nov 01, 2009 8:24 am) Here's a good example: Tort reform prevents Chinese drywall victims in Louisiana from making a full recovery (nola.com)
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Replying to: steve_ (Nov 01, 2009 10:03 am) To address Tort reform. There is too much abuse in malpractice cases and we all get stuck paying the bills. We are losing doctors that do not want to pay the huge insurance costs to protect themselves from ambulance chasing attorneys. I would rather see a board of arbitrators that would decide malpractice cases. And your case is a good reason to have tort reform. Read this paragraph carefully. Under the old rules of litigation in Louisiana, even if a company only played a small role in harming the consumer, it could be held responsible for 100 percent of the damages, according to Alan Childress, a Tulane Law School professor. That means all the aggrieved homeowner would have to do is sue the party that installed their Chinese drywall.That party, in turn, would sue companies further up the chain. Here is the way I see the problem with the old laws. You are a subcontractor that bids to hang drywall in a bunch of homes. You get to the job and the drywall is ready to hang. You hang it and someone else tapes and paints. 13 years later they find problems with the drywall and look for someone to sue. You happen to be the only one still in business and you can be found 100% liable. That is just crazy and a very good reason for Tort reform everywhere. The bugaboo is we are governed by a batch of sleazy attorneys. A better case is the Doc cutting off the wrong foot.
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Replying to: gagrice (Nov 01, 2009 1:28 pm)  You usually only have a couple of years to press your claims. Then you have to hassle with all the legal morass while trying to get to trial. And then you have to gamble before a judge or jury or both. It's a wonder than anything gets decided in the first place. Remove another sword of Damocles hanging over people to do the right thing and they will be even less likely to bring safe products to market. Most estimates of tort costs are wildly inflated -- they've been running between 1 and 2% of the GNP since the 50's.
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Replying to: steve_ (Nov 01, 2009 2:08 pm) For neurosurgeons in Miami, the annual cost of medical malpractice insurance is astronomical — $237,000, far more than the median price of a house. In Toronto, a neurosurgeon pays about $29,200 for coverage. It's even less in Montreal ($20,600) and Vancouver ($10,650). The costs are strikingly different, largely because of the ways in which Canada insures doctors and protects those who are sued: • In 1978, the Canadian Supreme Court limited damages for pain and suffering. Adjusted for inflation, the cap now is just over $300,000. The United States has no federal cap on damages, though a few states, including Florida, have imposed them. http://www.tampabay.com/news/article1021977.ece Then add all the needless tests doctors prescribe to cover their butt and the health care picture in the USA becomes much clearer. We need to limit damages or we will all go broke paying for health care. PS 2% of GNP is $260 Billion per year. That used to be a lot of money until the current bunch got elected.
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Replying to: gagrice (Nov 01, 2009 5:00 pm) Suppose Gagrice has trouble with diverticulosis and diverticulitis. He decides to have surgery to remove the offending portions of colon. After surgery he has high heart rate, high blood pressure which doctors keep saying is because he had existing heart condition (had stress tests 6 months before--no problems). In 4th day of recovery was moved to have 3 hospital tests done in wheelchair instead of on a gurney. Sat upright for 3 hours waiting in various labs. Developed sepsis later that day. Heart was cardioverted 3 times as he grew mortally ill. Later that evening doctor redid surgery finding defective staple job was leaking colon contents into abdomen. Wheelchair use rather than gurney possibly helped cause tear in colon. Now patient has colostomy. At severe risk of death for 6 days in ICU before doctors became hopeful even suggesting he _might_ make it. After total of 28 days in ICU and low level ICU during which doctors were giving patient blood transfusions before finally finding the colostomy was done wrong and bleeding internally and another doctor in the practice group redid surgery moving colostomy to other side. Also patient was on dialysis because antibiotics for sepsis stopped kidneys from working with no probability they would recover (they did). BTW, heart is just fine: initial heart trouble symptoms was from probable leakage of colon due to staple not holding as healing occurred. Patient finally developing some strength like before surgery after 5 months.Faces two more sugeries for hernias and colostomy reversal!!! How much would you think that's worth? If it were your wife? I don't think a limit on recovery is to benefit anyone other than careless hospitals and careless doctors. BTW, if he were in Canada he'd be healthier today: he's still be waiting for surgery. Or he'd be dead because they wouldn't have spent the money for the antibiotics to try to control the sepsis. The hospital wanted to call in hospice and family doctor refused and insisted they try to treat him. The infections disease doctor saved his life when he caught a factor while interviewing his wife and me about any health problems in family like heart disease, etc. Initial antibiotic treatments weren't progressing well. Patient had been taking antibiotic for diverticulitis for many months and the gut bacteria were resistant to some antibiotics. The ICU nurse said she had never seen the antibiotic used that he ordered--I assume because of expense. If we had socialized medicine in place as do some other countries, he would not be alive. He would have eventually gotten the surgery, but symptoms would have been much worse. The doctors and hospitals would have been even more hurried trying to fit in all the surgeries into the limited national schedule.
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Replying to: imidazol97 (Nov 01, 2009 5:21 pm) |
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STIMULUS WATCH: Salary raise counted as saved job WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's economic recovery program saved 935 jobs at the Southwest Georgia Community Action Council, an impressive success story for the stimulus plan. Trouble is, only 508 people work there. The Georgia nonprofit's inflated job count is among persisting errors in the government's latest effort to measure the effect of the $787 billion stimulus plan despite White House promises last week that the new data would undergo an "extensive review" to root out errors discovered in an earlier report. About two-thirds of the 14,506 jobs claimed to be saved under one federal office, the Administration for Children and Families at Health and Human Services, actually weren't saved at all, according to a review of the latest data by The Associated Press. Instead, that figure includes more than 9,300 existing employees in hundreds of local agencies who received pay raises and benefits and whose jobs weren't saved. That type of accounting was found in an earlier AP review of stimulus jobs, which the Obama administration said was misleading because most of the government's job-counting errors were being fixed in the new data. At Southwest Georgia Community Action Council in Moultrie, Ga., director Myrtis Mulkey-Ndawula said she followed the guidelines the Obama administration provided. She said she multiplied the 508 employees by 1.84 — the percentage pay raise they received — and came up with 935 jobs saved. "I would say it's confusing at best," she said. "But we followed the instructions we were given." Not only does the Obama administration subvert the truth, they send instructions on how stimulus recipients are supposed to lie. |
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I guess it's typical for the incumbent's party to lose seats in the mid-term election, but I don't know about the odd year ones. The two governorships went to Reps while a Dem won a House seat in a GOP district against an independent, after the liberal Rep dropped out (and I'll avoid pointing out the obvious oxymoron there). Then there was the guy who can afford not to belong to either party and managed to get term limits overturned - Bloomberg won handily for his 3rd term as NYC mayor.
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Replying to: steve_ (Nov 04, 2009 8:39 am)  Yes the RINO in NY gave the election to a Dem. Eastern Republicans are not generally very conservative. They are more Old Money elitist with many Liberal views. Hoffman while clearly my choice in the district was not typical NY Republican. Bloomberg is more the norm for the RINOs in the state. Two big losses of Eastern Liberal Governors should give Obama something to ponder. When will the gays learn that mainstream Americans are not in favor of same sex marriages? What a waste of tax dollars putting that ignorance on the ballot.
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Off Topic Chatter Forget Bushisms, Biden Gaffes, We have Obama blunders
