will look into ayurveda

Indian ayurveda practicioners are more knowledgable.

Go for it. It’s too late for me, but there’s a chance for you.

10 times!? Ouch!

I have been considering a Chinese herbalist as an alternative method of preventing such an outcome.

Nor do I dispute yours. If politicians were as honorable as physicians, we wouldn’t have a need for this blog.

I’ve been under the knife ten times and if my experience is any indicator, 70% of the time it’s going to be a worthwhile endeavor. My horror stories, however, pale in comparison to true tragedies.

I know you agree that mistakes happen. Accountability isn’t too much to ask. I never sued, had no intention/desire to, but I’d sure have liked to gotten the quacks under the spotlight.

But if we can’t have accountablity for the Prez, it’s a bit much to ask of it for those who actually do good.

I don’t know anything about your saying concerning the AMA. I will defer to your better judgement. However, I want to point out that I don’t dispute that doctors botch things all the time. I think, though, that their level of responsibility and public expectations are set very very high. When they make mistakes, sometimes it’s because the efforts that they have made were a best guest to provide some chance better than zero of success/survival. This needs to be considered more in my opinion when determining malpractice. An MD does not impart absolute knowledge, it states that you are qualified to make a judgement, which is more often than not, an assessment of probabilities in any scientific discipline.

Ole,

‘Doctors’ (the AMA)’fail’ society by not adequately regulating themselves. They fail themselves as well. I’m not ‘current’ on laws, but I’m pretty sure that it’s still legal to be banned from practicing medicine in one state only to be allowed to practice in another.

You can attribute that to “State’s Rights” all you want but you and I BOTH know that the AMA has the clout to control that situation. That they don’t damns them. Uh oh, looks like time for Big Brother to step in. Big Brother WOULD step in if Big Brother wasn’t already in the hind pocket of the AMA.

ANYTHING that happens in the medical arena in this country can be laid at the feet of the AMA and Pharmaceutical companies. They receive all the praise, accolades and rewards that they’re presently receiving; shouldn’t they also be culpable for failure?

I don’t doubt that doctors make negligent mistakes. I merely give them the benefit of the doubt more often then most people who expect them to work miracles might. If I were to go under the knife, the last thing I would want is a doctor second-guessing himself operating on me.

Ole,

That you have chosen to ignore what happens does not make it fantasy. I hope you don’t apply that same philosophy to your financial dealings.

Try medicalmalpractice dot com.

I don’t think doctors fail society. I think the healthcare system in this country is flawed, but I have never witnessed anything or read anything about doctors that leads me to negative generalizations. I have a lot of respect for the commitments that they make. I think a lot of people hold doctors to a standard that cannot be attained. I think with a better healthcare system, we wouldn’t need to rely on doctors as miracle-workers as often as we do. My wife’s experience working in a personal injury attorney’s firm has led me to believe that a lot of the malpractice suits are way too agressive. This could be an isolated incidence, but I doubt it. Her experience included numerous instances where lawyers, who were actually decent people in normal life, were very agressive, manipulative and just plain destructive in their ‘pursuit of justice.’ My wife was basically writing expert opinions that the so called experts would simply sign-off on(she is very inteligent but an art degree hardly qualifies as expertise in such matters).

Ole,

Your interpretation of my interpretation was weak, at best. I would be among the last to defend lawyers as a profession just as I am critical of the medical professions. There are wonderful people in both, but as organizations, they fail society.

DD-

Interpret all you like. That interpretation was weak at best. I said nothing of the sort about all doctors being good. I tend to sympathize with scientists. I also tend to sympathize with practitioners of arts/skills that require the kind of patience and discipline that characterizes what physicians do (or herbalists, accupuncturists, therapists, bellydancers, chefs, taxi-drives, librarians, stockbrokers, soccer-players, shopkeepers, musicians, chimneysweeps, etc.) over what lawyers do. I specifically said that I give doctors the benefit of the doubt over lawyers (who are just as much, if not more, members of the ruling elite). This is clearly a matter of personal preference, I am fully aware. I would be happy to discuss this preference in greater detail, if necessary. I can summarize it by stating that the adversarial approach to justice has little application to solving problems outside of a courtroom.

Jed-

I am not putting the health care crisis on Edwards’ shoulders or even all the shoulders in the American Bar Association. I was just pointing out that Edwards’ rise to stature is tainted in my opinion. My opinion is definitely shaped by a near total disrespect for lawyers, with some notable exceptions. Even my best friend who is a lawyer is not excepted from this indictment. Granted, most of the fools who are running from both parties are lawyers, so we need not limit it to just Edwards.

Anyway, I think you’ve pointed out some serious deficiencies in the US healthcare and what I stated was not meant to detract in any way from the entire sum of problems that plague the system we have in this country.

Isn’t it dishonest to try to put the blame for our healthcare crisis on Attorneys?
Would there be a need for an attorney to get involved if a doctor did not screw up bad enough for an attorney to get involved in the first place?

Consider some of the doctors I have encountered in the last 5 years trying to deal with a chronic condition they can’t pinpoint, I can well understand why it’s getting more expensive rather than cheaper due to improved efficiencies. Just a couple of examples of why healthcare is so expensive. I recently had an ophtalmologist visit to check a persistent eye infection. Like the GP and others before him, his first instinct was to prescribe antibiotics like all the previous doctors had done. When he was told I wasn’t willing to put myself through the damage of another antibiotics course that provided no results, he performed a tear production test. Rather than testing the purulent material emanating from my eye he suggested some fake tear drops to ‘moisturize’ the eye. Nothing was done to even find out the actual ’cause’ of the dryness or the excretions. For this 15 minute visit I was charged $840. On a follow up that i forced I asked the doctor what had raised the bill so high, the very telling response… ‘Don’t you have insurance? what do you care?’ which said to me… they are so used to overbilling the insurance company that the insurance company doesn’t even question most stuff that passes to them except the most expensive and usually necessary stuff and neither should the consumer who covers this waste with his premiums.
Second example, a friend’s son, about 22, hurt his shoulder playing football, after a couple of days of intense pain he decided to go to the UT SWrn facility, he had to wait 23 hours to see a doctor, the doctor came in, touched the area a little and recomended surgery for a torn ACL. The bill was $2500(that’s just for the diagnosis, not the surgery), I guess this is because he didn’t have insurance. That is what is driving up prices in our health care. Incompetent doctors that opt for the simplest solution to treat the symptoms exhibited rather than making an earnest attempt at finding the actual CAUSE. Their failure at due diligence create the conditions where bacteria like the Multiply Resistant Staff Infection and other new bacteria are able to incubate unabated, leading to more chronic diseases and greater cost of treatment in the future.
Another important element in driving up the perceived cost of healthcare is the overcharging that hospitals and DR. offices in general are perpetrating on the public. $2500 for a 10 minute visit after a 23 hr wait just doesn’t seem like getting value conmensurate to cost.
Some may say the expertise of the doctor warrants the expense, I say to them that an orderly with basic anatomical training would have made a more accurate diagnosis. Surgery wasn’t necessary, just therapy and keeping the area cool.

To put the problem of our current health care system on the shoulders of attorneys is an example of dissembling that the party of the bloated elephant is perpetrating on the american people. As it stands today, lawyers won’t even take a malpractice case unless it is absolutely obvious and winnable beyond a shadow of doubt because of the restrictions that the Bushneys put on attorneys with their ‘tort reform’(how ironic) legislation. What they did was actually destroy a recouse for compensation when medical providers committ acts of extreme negligence, that recourse gone we now have in place the same system of unacountability in our healthcare services that is prevalent in our police departments, schools and government offices.
Is that really what we need? After a couple of decades of the current health care system, have we not learned that the promise of efficiency, savings and innovation that was professed when the healthcare law was introduced was merely a pipedream, designed to get support from the public for a law they themselves very well knew was full or holes and possibilities for abuse.
The health insurance companies knew very well what loopholes existed and how to capitalize on them, hell, they wrote those loopholes in themselves so they could profit off the ineficiencies inherent in the way they designed the oversight infrastructure and payment methods.
Put the blame where it belongs rather than using lawyers as a scapegoat, It was the Republicant’s who were unable to come up with a viable healthcare policy without involving their friends in the industry on the drafting of the laws.
Come to think of it, that’s the same way they dealt with energy policy, medicare, senior medicine and banking law. Sh*t, we shouldn’t be surprised, we should be angry and ready to remove all the political elite and put in all fresh faces.

OUT WITH THE SKULLS AND ALL OTHER SECRET SOCIETIES IN POLITICS!!!

Ole,

I’m curious, how is it you can ‘indict’ Edwards with a vague reference and criticize Cake because HIS indictments of Bushney are ‘vague.’ At least his has passion whereas you use subtle innuendo to condemn. Edwards sues doctors, Edwards is bad. You make the assumption that doctors, part of the elite class structure, are all good and ANY one who might find fault with a doctor’s behavior and or treatment is bad. Tortured logic under the most forgiving of interpretations. But you don’t want it interpreted, do you?

Not going to happen young man.

Edwards ‘worked his way up’ suing doctors. I am not saying that all lawyers are bad people, but I have far less respect for someone who has created wealth and a favorable reputation by casting doubt onto people who make a living by helping people. That’s not to say all doctors are saints, but I do give them the benefit of the doubt over lawyers. Dealing with human life is a hell of a lot more difficult and uncertain than offering criticism. You’ve mentioned the rising cost of healthcare (maybe just growing inaccessibility of it to the poor and middle class - can’t remember)…haven’t lawyers such as Edwards been a major force driving up those costs?

I am sure he’ll just apologize and flash that million-dollar smile.

Edwards is of interest to lots of Democrats, independents and, Republicans.

He was Bold and put up serious doubts about Hillary.

The polls are so strange, Do Not Believe the gap between Clinton, Edwards and, Obama.

The media wants Hillary to be the “Candidate” and, the Republicans want her to be their competition.

Hillary has adapted too easily to the lobbyists, pharmaceuticals and, Murdoch’s “self-interests”.

She has become the imitation Republican and that would be A Bad Thing as a “leader”.

Too Corporate, Too close to Bush’s lousy “war policies”…(Something does not ring true).

Edwards came out swinging and I like that! He made some of the Sheep-Democrats very uncomfortable-and displayed the Positive Differences between Democrats(Real Ones) and the Republican Way.

Middle of the Road isn’t good enough anymore-we need a Decisive and Strong leader-labor, health care, No More Baseless “Wars”!

And, the Country has drifted so far Right, we need some Left pull to get rid of the fascism that has slithered in with the Bush/Cheney/Rove “approach”… It has to Go…

Pelosi should have gone for Bush/Cheney Impeachment-the deferment Kings Lust for more “War” without real reason-they are in for the profits and control.They need to Exit-Impeachment should be now before they Conjure up World War III(starting with Iran). Get rid of the blight on our Nation!

DWM

Back already? Aren’t these modern drugs something.

ON THE OTHER HAND!!

This could be a ploy,, a ploy by non-other than,,,,,,,, Comrade Hillary Clinton..

Bow down John Edwards, Show your respect to the new GodMother!!
Kiss the ring and promise to repay the favor the new GodMother is granting you, by letting you become Vice president..

Remember Mr. Edwards,,
One day,, and that day may never come, SHE may come to you in need of a favor,,,
It’s good to have Friends, you’ll be reminded…

But then again,,,
I could be reading between the lines of a laptop someone sent me..

WHAT I WANT TO KNOW IS,,,,,
WHEN DOES JOHN EDWARDS PLAN TO START PUTTING BLACK MALES IN PRISON OR HAVE THEN KILLED???

COME ON FOLKS, IF A REPUBLICAN WOULD HAVE SAID IF HE WAS ELECTED, HE’D DO WHAT EDWARDS IS PLANNING, THE DEMOCRATS WOULD COME UP WITH A PIC OF THAT REPUBLICAN AND SENATOR BYRD AT A CROSS BURNING / DEMOCRAT FUND RAISER, DURING THE HAY-DAY OF THE DEMOCRAT PARTY!!

YES, YES, YES,, WE ALL KNOW THAT IT’S THE REPUBLICANS WHO ARE RACISTS,, BUT WHERE DOES JOHN EDWARDS FIT IN??? AND IF SO FACT-O,,,
WAS AL GORE SR. A REPUBLICAN??
HE SURE ACTED LIKE ONE WHEN HE FILIBUSTERED THE CIVIL RIGHTS BILL..

NO!! WE SHOULD NOT SUPPORT PUBLIC MONIES FOR JOHN EDWARDS,, NO MORE THAN WE SHOULD SUPPORT PUBLIC MONIES FOR DAVID DUKE!!!

HERE HERE,, THIS RASISM MUST END!!!

Has anyone noticed the strange correspondence between Edwards and Cheney’s point of view with respect to homosexual marriage?
Well, I suppose you can’t call it a point of view because Cheney never really invoked his daughter’s point of view on the issue to mainstream his own un-pc stance, but imagine if he had. Maybe the left wouldn’t be so quick to call the administration homophobic.

This only made me give more to Edwards. I’m tired of the corruption from both parties. Hillary has her donor problems and thinks lobbyists are just regular folk and leans rather hard to the right. By the way, there are a number of us democrats that will never vote for her. Obama runs out on every vote that could potentially haunt him. He seems afraid to take a real principled stand. Edwards has been the leader on every issue. He doesn’t take lobbyist money and I’m glad he stands up for the little guy. He’s a real fighter and anyone would be foolish to count him out this early, prior to any vote being cast.

Kid,

Hear Hear!! There’s something rotten in America.

Middle

I think you hit on the bigger issue here. In a land where anyone can supposedly be President, only the richest and those with the highest popularity pre-election run should even bother taking a shot. The money being spent on these campaigns has increased at ridiculous rates the last couple elections, meanwhile the percent of the public actually voting has remained stagnant or decreased. What does that mean for 2012 and 2016? Is it going to take half a billion dollars to get a seat in the White House? Imagine what that money could be spent on: all the charities, social programs, or foreign-need organizations that could do some much good with money that’s largely getting thrown away. Some day we need to realize that campaign finance reform needs to be a bigger issue in this country and that our candidates should stand on their political views and plans and those alone.

Good stuff Marsha. Edwards is anything but a dummy. He knows what he’s doing. Ole’s question could cause a wrinkle, but I doubt Edwards is thinking VP. Certainly NOT Hillary’s VP. She wouldn’t choose him anyway ’cause he wouldn’t bring anything to the table. Except heat.

While I very strongly dislike John Edwards, I find it extremely sad that in today’s world, you need well over $50 million dollars to even have a shot at getting elected president. Is it any wonder that many voters like me feel so disenchanted with both parties? Republicans need money from the religious right and Democrats need money from the far left. Those groups then own that candidate leaving those of us in the middle with no one.

I saw this well reasoned argument by another blogger about how and why Edwards can win with public financing:

“The republicans, mid-way through the 2004 cycle, found a loophole that allows the party to spend unlimited hard-money on behalf of the candidate, so long as the ad is on behalf of the entire party as well as the candidate. So that if Edwards becomes the nominee, the DNC can raise and spend unlimited hard money during the summer and fall, so long as the ads mention that he is a democrat, or that he’s running against “republicans.”

There’s little doubt, in this cycle, that our nominee is going to run as a democrat and against republicans.

As for the state caps, thats also only on expenses by the campaign itself. IEs on his behalf don’t count against the cap. Given that his strategy, under any circumstance, is going to rely heavily on support from allied groups, esp in his field effort. So its not necessarily going to hurt him as much there either.

As someone who has a hard time supporting even liberal democrats who don’t make campaign finance a major issue, I’m actually glad to see him do this. I realize its out of necessity, but the recognition that without some public financing, we’re going to have nothing but corporate Democratic candidates forever is an important part of his argument.

Since my small contributions, unlike the maxed-out donors that are powering Clinton, will be 100% matched, I’ll give some more now.”

I agree– absolutely.

Pity, I liked him better than either of the presumptive leaders.
Like most everything in this country, we lose because big money subverts all that it touches. By far the most interesting ideas in either party come from the second tier.
Guess I’ll be voting the green party…

while I admire edwards ethical stance I have to wonder if this is really a moot point? He just can’t seem to connect to the country at large. even with the re-release of RFK’s war on poverty platform.