Originally posted by iAlan
Very good point, if doctors are found guilty of malpractive they should be suspended, or depending on the severity be given the equivelent of a diss-barment (is that a word?)
Doctors don't belong to any bar association. they are licensed, so revoking the license would be the course of action. of course, they can just go practice unlicensed or in another country...
personally, i think a balance should be reached... certainly there are things beyond doctors' and hospitals' controls, in which case it's usually a vindictive or greedy family cashing in, but there are certainly cases (albeit rare) where large malpractice settlements are justified. Like, i think there was a doctor a while ago that used a broken-off screwdriver in place of a titanium rod when it went missing during the surgery... of course the screwdriver snapped under strain later, resulting in unimaginable consequences for the patient (both physical pain and the depression and pain that come with more surgeries)... yes, i think that doctor should face everything that's coming his way.
but i digress. Stelliform, don't you see the inherent problem with below cost-of-living pay increases? As was pointed out, look at the educational system. Most teachers cannot make ends meet anymore, and are turning just about anywhere else for better pay. i know someone that recently got a degree in elementary education, she now works at a retail store along with another part-time job because it simply pays better. Giving sub-cost-of-living increases is fine in small doses, as families learn to make due on less during bad years, but in some cases it's sustained until the pay and the cost-of-living index are worlds apart... that's when,
as we see of late in the news, entire families start falling into the poverty level. Of course across-the-board increases would spur inflation, but inflation has shown itself to be the natural evolution of any monetary system, i personally blame this on the inability to enforce price-gouging laws and create new laws as companies get too big for the government to keep track of... the government has fallen by the wayside of big business, and so the entire industry is running wild. the rest of the government has grown very strong recently, but it's not had less economic influence in a long time, it seems. apparently since bush has nothing to gain on that front, he pretty steadily ignores it. but that is another subject
pnw
