The Reality of the Boston Massacre – a preview of a flawed system

On the icy evening of March 5, 1770, a lone guard reinforced by eight British soldiers stood against several hundred bitter men spitting, cursing, and throwing chunks of stone. We all know what happens. Five men are shot as the soldiers open fire. Paul Revere distributes a print about the killing as a “bloody butchery” portraying the scene as a slaughter of the innocent and “The Boston Massacre” is forever embedded in the public’s eyes. The following day, several lawyers are called to court to defend the soldiers. All other lawyers reject the case except John Adams, because he believed  “that no man in a free country should be denied the right to counsel and a fair trial” (McCullough 66). Adams had a much closer study on the incidence, and was convinced that the soldiers were not guilty.

In court, Adams argued:

“The tragedy was not brought on by the soldiers, but by the mob, and the mob, it must be understood, was the inevitable result of the flawed policy of quartering troops in a city on the pretext of keeping peace” (McCullough 67).

And so, Captain Preston (the captain who was accused of giving the order to fire into the crowd) was found not guilty.

I bring this historic reference up for the following reason: in a flawed system, the people (mob) react to their situation, mainly, the unfair taxing system. The reaction of the people caused the innocent to suffer.

We’ve all heard about history repeating itself. Whenever there is a flawed system, the innocent suffer. In today’s medical society, we find innocent people suffer as well:  innocent doctors and devastated families.

The “modern” system

The United States supposedly has one of the best governing systems in the world. And we always look at the past to see how far along we’ve come; and the way the so called “modern day America” is used makes it seem like we have it good. However the truth is: its a mess. Among the mess of things, there is the United States Malpractice System.

Medical Malpractice as defined on law.com:

“A physician’s deviation from the applicable standard of care that a similar physician would exercise under the same circumstances.”

Usually, the average doctor gets sued every six years. Depending on the risk of your practice – such as neurosurgeons and obstetricians – get sued more often. Seventy percent of the lawsuits are dropped by the plaintiff or won by the doctor. If the doctor loses, then the pay out is over half a million dollars. Average surgeon pays about 30,000 to 300,000 dollars for malpractice-insurance premiums depending the litigation climate.

The way lawyers choose clients, are through the damages done. The greater the damages, the greater the payout. Even if there are no direct connections involved, indirect ones can be used against the physician.This being said, despite people calling about suing physicians, the only ones that make it through are ones with heavy damages. Many malpractice lawyers gets ridiculous calls, however those are usually turned away.

Negligence (again, defined by law.com) is the term used to describe mistakes that could have been avoided.

“failure to exercise the care toward others which a reasonable or prudent person would do in the circumstances, or taking action which such a reasonable person would not.”

In one way, this is considered a good thing since it keeps the physician on his feet. However, this definition of negligence makes a doctors life even harder. A Physician performs thousands of delicate procedures and deals with unclear test results and to not cause a complication is just not possible. The lawyer’s perspective is more like this: you could have a perfect driving record, but if you run a red light and cause an accident, you are negligent.

The only thing that the malpractice system has done is that people can receive compensation for a devastating mistake in a civilized manner, unlike other foreign countries where hospitals deal with rioting families. Even still, many malpractice lawsuits have not successfully given families satisfactory compensation; and only leave both sides bitter. Half of the US states have enacted caps on the amount of money that can be compensated by the doctors to make sure that malpractice premiums can still be afforded by physicians.

Conclusion

If the Justice system in the United States truly does work, then it will protect the innocent and punish the violators. However, all doctors not only go through lawsuits but they also pay thousands of dollars for malpractice premiums. Families that DO suffer either get their case turned away by lawyers or lost in court.

Perhaps a day like the Boston Massacre will occur and hopefully, a person like John Adams will shed enough light on the matter so that we can all see: we need change.

Citations:

Atul Gawande, David Studdert, Michelle Mello, Troy Brennan, D. Ridgway

More Information will be sent upon request.

Feel free to leave comments!

The fork: Medical Treatment and Insurance

Simple Truth

So this is basically how the system currently works.

We enter the hospital/doc’s office.

We either have insurance or not.

If we have insurance, insurance companies find reason to reject about 30% of patients.

If we don’t have insurance, the doc asks us to pay out of our own pocket.

Usually, most doctors (because they came into med to ‘help people’) dislike taking money from the poor, so they charge the bare minimum and do not profit at all. (Unless your well-off, they probably do charge you in full)

Therefore, doctors mostly get money from insurance companies.

Jumbled Numbers

Insurance companies are a business unlike a doctor who runs both a business and patient care.

If about 15% of American are uninsured, that means of the 30% of the 85% who are insured are not actually insured. This totals to about 35.5% of American are not actually insured. Which means about 1 in 3 people who come into the hospital are not insured/ or not getting money from the insurance companies.

Ridiculous, I know.

In order for a well-run doctor office to run properly (make actual profit), they fight the insurance companies to make that 30% into about 15%. And that is precisely where doctors make money.

NOT through ordering more tests than necessary or treatments that are not needed, but through fighting the insurance companies. Yes, there may be an extreme few who do actually do what the myth says, but doctors are educated individuals with ethics. In addition, a doctor gets sued once in about 6 years – where 70% are either dropped or lost and if won, the pay out on average is over $500,000. A kind of paradoxical thing the medical law suits in the US do: protect the patients from aggressive doctors and also hurt patients who weren’t looked at properly because of the protocols, laws, and fear of getting sued. I guess in the end, it basically comes down to: the rich get better health care than the poor.

The Paradox

In 2005, the United States spent more than 2 TRILLION dollars on health care. This is by the way 1/6th of the money we have in our piggy bank. with approx. 280 million people, that breaks down to about $7000 per person. Of the 2 trillion dollars, 80% is split between insurance companies and government. The rest come out of the people’s pockets (the 35.5% who are not actually insured). Wow, we pay $7000 per year on health care (through tax) that one in three people don’t receive. That makes me feel great, I’m helping fight other people’s diseases!

Works Cited:

Atul Gawande, David Studdert, Michelle Mello, William Hsaio, William Weeks, Jack Hadley

www.cms.hhs.gov/nationalhealthexpenddata

www.reformmonitor.org

More information on cited works will be sent upon request.

Laziness (I know, academically frowned upon)

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