[anniegetyourgun]

More evidence that government interference destroys good things.

[scouse]

I think the trial lawyers are responsible for this problem.
Two ways to overcome this are (1)Loser Pays and (2)All Medical Charity work should be paid for by the various Bar Associations.

[Hodar]

No good deed goes unpunished.

Houston, TX - A good samaratain MD did some charity work at a homeless shelter, where he met a man who had stepped on a nail. After cleaning the wound, and wrapping the foot, the good Dr. then gave this individual anti-biotics.

2 weeks later, the Dr. returned to the shelter only to find the individual had sold the anti-biotics, bought cheap booze, and fell asleep in the gutter. The foot cast had disintergrated and the wound had re-infected to the point of gangrene. The homeless man lost his foot, then sued for mal-practice.

Fortunately, the Dr. won the case; but a harsh lesson had been learned. For his desire to help, his career had been threatened. For donating his time and money (anti-biotics are not free) his reward was to pay for his own legal defence (malpractice suits through a hospital are covered by work insurance, this activity was outside of the hospital, this he was on his own).

[Mamzelle]

How do they quantify what docs do how much charity care? They can't.

Mostly it happens by docs forgiving medical bills, and that won't get reported anywhere.

[Free the USA]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[janetgreen]

Many doctors have ended up treating so many charity cases with either very little pay from the gubmint, or no pay, that they are discouraged from even accepting them. An orthopaedic office I worked for accepted Medicaid, and the Vietnamese ladies driving Mercedes Benz cars would bring their parents in for charity care. The illegal aliens would come in for treatment, give false information, and had no intention of paying for anything.

These cases took up a lot of time for the doctors, so I can't blame them for not wanting to take too many charity cases. All the while, the docs would have to pay 50 grand a year or more for malpractice insurance to protect themselves from the very people they tried to treat.