I recently wrote a letter to the editor of the Lansing State Journal on just this topic. The truth is, it’s not just my friend and anesthesiologist Dr. Kenneth Elmassian, who takes this viewpoint – the local Michigan State Medical Society (MSMS) and the national American Medical Association (AMA) group that want to place doctors above the law. They have a problem with defensive medicine because of their faulty assumption on its connection to health care costs. They also want to single out doctors and give them blanket immunity that doesn’t exist with any other type of private individual.
Frankly, it is my choice and right as a patient to want defensive medicine for me and my family. I don’t want doctors cutting corners if the technology is available. We are not in the midst of a medical or legal crisis. WE ARE IN AN INSURANCE CRISIS. WE NEED INSURANCE REFORM.
The Constitution of the United States makes the right to a jury trial in civil matters a protected right by virtue of the 7th Amendment. If a jury can decide the factual disputes in all other negligence cases, and if a jury can decide whether a person commited a crime that can be punishable by loss of libery (incarceration), then a jury can certainly decide fair and adequate damages when a doctor harms a patient, and they and their families are affect for the rest of their lives!
Doctors put their pants/skirts on just like WE do!
