Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Practicing Medicine 2009

Our current health care system isn't perfect, that's for sure.

Here's one of the things we could change TODAY to lighten the load on costs........

Dr. Jacquelline Perlman, who's helped deliver hundreds of Brooklyn babies in her 12-year OB-GYN career, is calling it quits -- and citing sky-high malpractice insurance and plunging income.

"I've decided to retire from obstetrics," said Perlman, 42. "It breaks my heart. Malpractice costs are a big part of it. It's a very sad story.

The last straw, she said, came last spring when her insurer, the Combined Coordinating Council, noting the high risk of covering obstetricians, canceled her policy and those of doctors she practiced with at Brooklyn Women's Health Care, a New York Methodist Hospital affiliate.

She found a new insurer, but the damage was done. Her annual malpractice premium now runs about $160,000 -- for a doctor against whom no malpractice case or even so much as a settlement has ever been upheld.

And, she said, in the last five years, as her malpractice-insurance costs have risen, her income has dropped by 20 percent.

Think about that! Let's do a little math on this. Let's assume she delivers 300 babies a year. That's $533 per baby that has to get covered......... Just for insurance!

That doesn't count any overhead whatsoever.

What's crazy! That doesn't change at all under Obama care.

Article here....




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