I know I said I was done with Ron Paul, but this has been bugging me ever since I read it.

To solve the problem of frivolous lawsuits, which admittedly do happen, Ron Paul propses that we simply have people insure THEMSELVES against malpractice by their doctors.

That way, the doctors don't get sued and get to keep their money, the insurance companies get more business and more money, people harmed by doctors get compensated eventually after they sue the insurance company to get the money out of them after the insurance company denies the claim based on trumped-up excuses.  Everyone wins except the trial lawyers, who get a career set-back after they have to change specialties from suing doctors to suing claims-denying insurance companies.

Sure...except those who can't afford all the insurance premiums that are already required to just live in our society.  They get screwed some more.

Plus, how does this serve the much-vaunted Libertarian value of personal responsibility?  I have to pay money to insure myself so that someone else doesn't have to pay for their mistakes?

Pardon me, but that's F$%#!ed up.

You know what would help doctors out a lot?  Paying more attention to their patients, listening to them when they describe their symptoms, and not dismissing their concerns about specific health problems out of arrogance.  Also, hospitals could help by better managing their staff and not exhausting them with Bataan death-march shifts that lead to fatigue errors.

One of the things I've noticed is an increased reliance on Hospitalists.  Would hospitals and doctors be motivated to innovate improvements in patient care if accidents and mistakes just became the patient's problem?  Having a doctor around who is familiar with all aspects of a patient's care (where patients might have more than one or two conditions that need to be considered in care), as well as making sure that hospital procedures and policies are followed will go a long way to preventing medical malpractice and the suits that go with them.  Who knows what other improvements hospitals and doctors can make to help them provide more consistantly better care?

When I think about all the stuff that we've gone through in our lives due to negligence and summary judgements of medical professionals not paying attention to their patients, being dismissive and arrogant, not following hospital procedures, etc, it makes me just MAD that someone would suggest that we should have to pay out of our own pockets to protect other people and institutions from their own mistakes.