Posted on 05/10/2005 7:29:44 AM PDT by marylandrepub1
REMEMBER ALL that uproar over the rising cost of medical malpractice insurance? The special session of the Maryland General Assembly four months ago? The emergency bill? The tax on HMO premiums to underwrite malpractice insurance costs? The veto and the veto override? Seems like ancient history now. But here's the peculiar thing: The doctors who were desperate for financial relief from those hefty malpractice insurance bills have gotten no help whatsoever from their insurers or the state. And they've been told not to expect any assistance until July 1 at the earliest.
Maryland doctors should be furious about this. Consumers, too. The Ehrlich administration went to considerable lengths to make sure HMOs could pass along the 2 percent tax on premiums to their customers as quickly as possible, notifying them of the opportunity before the tax even became law. But when consumers are the ones to benefit and not big insurance companies? Well, the wheels seem to turn with a little less urgency, don't they? If the administration put as much energy into helping doctors as it did into politicking on the malpractice issue there's little doubt the matter would have been resolved weeks ago.
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
Slowly pricing themselves out of business are they. Or killing the goose that lays the golden egg (consumers). I'll be taking a vacation to India to have my medical work done.
As the lawyers have always been the winners. And as if we are not paying enough to dysfunctional middlemen in the medical industry who contribute NOTHING to your health, other than being an obstacle between you and your doctor and your healthcare.
Those of us old enough to remember back when we had no HMOs. How did we survive? How did we manage to stay alive? Just another cancerous bureaucracy sucking money out of our economic system, that has driven the costs of medical care UP since we must pay for this extortionist layer between us and our doctor.
The legal profession continues to prey on ANY situation where liability of any form may exist and they go out of their way to feed those organizations and situations -- and this thread is a classic example. The trial lawyers bought the Clinton adminstration, and it appears that nothing has changed with this administration, other than some mild "tort reform" legislation. And the citizen and consumer ALWAYS pays the bill...
After the destruction, Hillary/Kerry/Usual Suspect Sc*mb*gs get to ride in on a photo-op white horse to "save" health care with a third world socialized system.
Bobby Ehrlich vetoed this piece of garbage, but the legislature overrode the veto. The guv tried to bring pressure against it by letting everyone know that the consumers were the ones who would actually have to pay the tax, but this is the Peoples Democratic State of Maryland after all.
The Baltimore Sun taking Robert Ehrlich to task. Gee, I guess the sun rose in the East again. The sky is still blue. The pope is still Catholic.
Wait til a physician paralyzes you by his inattention and negligence. Then you are entitled to an opinion. The law has been so neutered that I might get a coupon for a free movie out of it.
Do you have any clue about what this law actually is? It has nothing to do with policing the medical profession, but is just an additional tax. Being Maryland taxpayers, we are entitled to our opinions about the taxes our legislature imposes on us.
Liberal tripe.
"The law has been so neutered that I might get a coupon for a free movie out of it."
The trial lawyers settle for a free movie coupon (for us) and millions of dollars of fees for them. In return, we pay this tax. This is quite a lottery.
This is yet another reason why this country won't last another 50 years. The conversion from republic to democracy is almost complete. God help us!
Haven't forgotten the MD Walmart bill.
Can you tell me if the Monkey County SUV luxury tax passed or not?
Living in the Land of Peasant Living. 'Pod
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