RE: A Chilling AMA Resolution: What Happened to the Hippocratic Oath?

[Guest guest]

The AMA isn't necessarily corrupt. You misunderstand the role of the AMA.

The AMA is a good ole boy club out to protect doctor's professional and

financial interests even when it is at the expense of public health.

The reason juries award those really large sums is because every single

person on the jury has had a doc be rude or malpractice on him. If the AMA

were really for bettering public health in this country, then they would be

coming down hard on rude doctors. They would make sure that any doc who

malpracticed was stripped of his license throughout the country. As it

stands right now, it is very difficult to have a doctor's license removed.

Even if a doc does have it removed in one state, he can go and set up shop

in the next state.

A regular person can't even call the state licensing board to find out how

many complaints a doctor has against him! A doctor can, but not an ordinary

citizen. I'll never forget a conversation I had with a high school buddy of

mine that I went to school with who studied to be a doc. He told me about a

guy they knew was malpracticing, but no one could touch him because of his

friends on the licensing board.

They have set it up so that the only way an injured patient can get justice

is to sue. I say sue the pants off of them.

A Chilling AMA Resolution: What

Happened to the Hippocratic Oath?

I wanted to make sure Jeff Sell knew about this. It is shocking but maybe

not, I have thought for a while that the AMA is corrupt.

Published on Wednesday, June 9, 2004 by CommonDreams.org

A Chilling AMA Resolution: What Happened to the Hippocratic Oath?

by Ralph Nader

Unless cooler heads prevail, the American Medical Association is

teetering on the brink of public ridicule, mockery and indignation.

Resolution 202 has been introduced by Dr. J. Hawk III from South

Carolina to the AMA's Committee B. It is aimed directly at trial lawyers as

patients.

This resolution sets a new record for loss of sensitivity toward the

tens of thousands of patients who die every year due to the gross negligence

or incompetence called medical malpractice. This proposed resolution

reflects the AMA's disappointment that the doctor's lobby has not adequately

torpedoed the legal rights of these innocent plaintiffs in court. So it

recommends major legal " surgery " that should turn the stomachs of more

conscientious ethical and competent physicians than just

gastroenterologists.

Here are the chilling words:

" RESOLVED, That our American Medical Association notify physicians

that, except in emergencies and except as otherwise required by law or other

professional regulation, it is not unethical to refuse care to plaintiffs'

attorneys and their spouses. "

Well at least the third generation Hawk left out the children.

The chilling explanation by Dr. Hawk for this proposed resolution is

that lawsuits against medical-practice mayhem raise malpractice insurance

premiums " forcing physicians to reduce their scope of practice, relocate,

and retire early. " Therefore, he concludes, trial attorneys should be given

" the opportunity to experience the access problems caused by the

professional liability crisis, " [and] then " perhaps they would be willing to

help change the system. "

The main problem with this sadistic sequence of illogic is that it is

false. The insurance companies are gouging the physicians by creating a

phony crisis and playing off the natural desire of physicians never to be

sued. Take all the premiums paid by doctors to insurance companies for

malpractice coverage and divide the sum by all the practicing physicians.

The premium would be about $10,000 a year -- a third of what they pay an

experienced receptionist in their offices.

Regulating insurance premiums to prevent over-classification of

specialists (which jack up rates), promoting experience loss rating (so that

the fewer bad doctors pay more than the competent doctors) and stiffening

regulation by state licensing boards to focus on the chronically harmful

physicians would help reduce the damage to innocent patients.

Five percent of physicians account for about fifty percent of filed

medical malpractice lawsuits. The total amount paid out in verdicts and

settlements in all malpractice lawsuits is between $5 and $6 billion -- less

than the amount spent just on dog food in this country. Only ten percent of

medical malpractice victims even file a claim

Yet according to the Harvard School of Public Health Physicians,

80,000 Americans die every year from medical negligence or worse just in

hospitals alone. Hundreds of thousands are significantly injured. By

comparison with the insurance premiums paid, one of the Harvard physicians

estimated the cost of medical malpractice casualties to be over $60 billion

a year.

Dr. Hawk III's narrow frame of reference must have precluded him from

reading the data and studies that contradict his precipitous attempt to

embrace the AMA with a sordid display of unethical recommendations. He

should log onto the websites Citizen.org and Centerjd.org for his

enlightenment (the web sites include data countering the allegation that

doctors are abandoning their practice).

It would be nice to refer him to an AMA website on medical malpractice

and what his organization is doing about this preventable violence. But

there is none. The AMA is oblivious, showing no interest in this nationwide

tragedy.

Dr. Hawk III's proposed resolution goes to Committee B and, if

approved, will go to the American Medical Association's House of Delegates

for deliberation. Let Americans see how out of touch the AMA is with reality

and how subservient to the insurance industry they continue to be.

###

[Guest guest]

There's lots more on the website.

Tonya Hettler

http://www.tsbme.state.tx.us/press/2004/061004.htm

Disciplinary Actions

The following are summaries of the Board actions. The full text of the

Board orders will be available on the board's web site at

www.tsbme.state.tx.us about 10 days after the Board meeting. The orders

provide all information that is public regarding the facts of the case

and violations of the law.

Open records requests for orders may be made to

openrecords@... ; media contact Jill Wiggins at (512)

305-7018 or jill.wiggins@... .

http://www.tsbme.state.tx.us/press/2004/pr2004.htm

Thursday, June 10 , 2004 - 33 Doctors Disciplined

Friday, May 14, 2004- Medical Board Suspends License of D.

, M.D.

Wednesday, April 7 , 2004 - 30 Doctors Disciplined

March 23, 2004- Medical Board Panel Suspends License of C. Raffier,

M.D.

February 13, 2004- Medical Board Panel Suspends License of Joyce M.

Liegel, M.D.

February 11, 2004 - 34 Doctors Disciplined

A Chilling AMA Resolution: What

Happened to the Hippocratic Oath?

I wanted to make sure Jeff Sell knew about this. It is shocking but

maybe

not, I have thought for a while that the AMA is corrupt.

Published on Wednesday, June 9, 2004 by CommonDreams.org

A Chilling AMA Resolution: What Happened to the Hippocratic Oath?

by Ralph Nader

Unless cooler heads prevail, the American Medical Association is

teetering on the brink of public ridicule, mockery and indignation.

Resolution 202 has been introduced by Dr. J. Hawk III from South

Carolina to the AMA's Committee B. It is aimed directly at trial lawyers

as

patients.

This resolution sets a new record for loss of sensitivity toward

the

tens of thousands of patients who die every year due to the gross

negligence

or incompetence called medical malpractice. This proposed resolution

reflects the AMA's disappointment that the doctor's lobby has not

adequately

torpedoed the legal rights of these innocent plaintiffs in court. So it

recommends major legal " surgery " that should turn the stomachs of more

conscientious ethical and competent physicians than just

gastroenterologists.

Here are the chilling words:

" RESOLVED, That our American Medical Association notify physicians

that, except in emergencies and except as otherwise required by law or

other

professional regulation, it is not unethical to refuse care to

plaintiffs'

attorneys and their spouses. "

Well at least the third generation Hawk left out the children.

The chilling explanation by Dr. Hawk for this proposed resolution

is

that lawsuits against medical-practice mayhem raise malpractice

insurance

premiums " forcing physicians to reduce their scope of practice,

relocate,

and retire early. " Therefore, he concludes, trial attorneys should be

given

" the opportunity to experience the access problems caused by the

professional liability crisis, " [and] then " perhaps they would be

willing to

help change the system. "

The main problem with this sadistic sequence of illogic is that it

is

false. The insurance companies are gouging the physicians by creating a

phony crisis and playing off the natural desire of physicians never to

be

sued. Take all the premiums paid by doctors to insurance companies for

malpractice coverage and divide the sum by all the practicing

physicians.

The premium would be about $10,000 a year -- a third of what they pay an

experienced receptionist in their offices.

Regulating insurance premiums to prevent over-classification of

specialists (which jack up rates), promoting experience loss rating (so

that

the fewer bad doctors pay more than the competent doctors) and

stiffening

regulation by state licensing boards to focus on the chronically harmful

physicians would help reduce the damage to innocent patients.

Five percent of physicians account for about fifty percent of

filed

medical malpractice lawsuits. The total amount paid out in verdicts and

settlements in all malpractice lawsuits is between $5 and $6 billion --

less

than the amount spent just on dog food in this country. Only ten percent

of

medical malpractice victims even file a claim

Yet according to the Harvard School of Public Health Physicians,

80,000 Americans die every year from medical negligence or worse just in

hospitals alone. Hundreds of thousands are significantly injured. By

comparison with the insurance premiums paid, one of the Harvard

physicians

estimated the cost of medical malpractice casualties to be over $60

billion

a year.

Dr. Hawk III's narrow frame of reference must have precluded him

from

reading the data and studies that contradict his precipitous attempt to

embrace the AMA with a sordid display of unethical recommendations. He

should log onto the websites Citizen.org and Centerjd.org for his

enlightenment (the web sites include data countering the allegation that

doctors are abandoning their practice).

It would be nice to refer him to an AMA website on medical

malpractice

and what his organization is doing about this preventable violence. But

there is none. The AMA is oblivious, showing no interest in this

nationwide

tragedy.

Dr. Hawk III's proposed resolution goes to Committee B and, if

approved, will go to the American Medical Association's House of

Delegates

for deliberation. Let Americans see how out of touch the AMA is with

reality

and how subservient to the insurance industry they continue to be.

###

[Guest guest]

There's lots more on the website.

Tonya Hettler

http://www.tsbme.state.tx.us/press/2004/061004.htm

Disciplinary Actions

The following are summaries of the Board actions. The full text of the

Board orders will be available on the board's web site at

www.tsbme.state.tx.us about 10 days after the Board meeting. The orders

provide all information that is public regarding the facts of the case

and violations of the law.

Open records requests for orders may be made to

openrecords@... ; media contact Jill Wiggins at (512)

305-7018 or jill.wiggins@... .

http://www.tsbme.state.tx.us/press/2004/pr2004.htm

Thursday, June 10 , 2004 - 33 Doctors Disciplined

Friday, May 14, 2004- Medical Board Suspends License of D.

, M.D.

Wednesday, April 7 , 2004 - 30 Doctors Disciplined

March 23, 2004- Medical Board Panel Suspends License of C. Raffier,

M.D.

February 13, 2004- Medical Board Panel Suspends License of Joyce M.

Liegel, M.D.

February 11, 2004 - 34 Doctors Disciplined

A Chilling AMA Resolution: What

Happened to the Hippocratic Oath?

I wanted to make sure Jeff Sell knew about this. It is shocking but

maybe

not, I have thought for a while that the AMA is corrupt.

Published on Wednesday, June 9, 2004 by CommonDreams.org

A Chilling AMA Resolution: What Happened to the Hippocratic Oath?

by Ralph Nader

Unless cooler heads prevail, the American Medical Association is

teetering on the brink of public ridicule, mockery and indignation.

Resolution 202 has been introduced by Dr. J. Hawk III from South

Carolina to the AMA's Committee B. It is aimed directly at trial lawyers

as

patients.

This resolution sets a new record for loss of sensitivity toward

the

tens of thousands of patients who die every year due to the gross

negligence

or incompetence called medical malpractice. This proposed resolution

reflects the AMA's disappointment that the doctor's lobby has not

adequately

torpedoed the legal rights of these innocent plaintiffs in court. So it

recommends major legal " surgery " that should turn the stomachs of more

conscientious ethical and competent physicians than just

gastroenterologists.

Here are the chilling words:

" RESOLVED, That our American Medical Association notify physicians

that, except in emergencies and except as otherwise required by law or

other

professional regulation, it is not unethical to refuse care to

plaintiffs'

attorneys and their spouses. "

Well at least the third generation Hawk left out the children.

The chilling explanation by Dr. Hawk for this proposed resolution

is

that lawsuits against medical-practice mayhem raise malpractice

insurance

premiums " forcing physicians to reduce their scope of practice,

relocate,

and retire early. " Therefore, he concludes, trial attorneys should be

given

" the opportunity to experience the access problems caused by the

professional liability crisis, " [and] then " perhaps they would be

willing to

help change the system. "

The main problem with this sadistic sequence of illogic is that it

is

false. The insurance companies are gouging the physicians by creating a

phony crisis and playing off the natural desire of physicians never to

be

sued. Take all the premiums paid by doctors to insurance companies for

malpractice coverage and divide the sum by all the practicing

physicians.

The premium would be about $10,000 a year -- a third of what they pay an

experienced receptionist in their offices.

Regulating insurance premiums to prevent over-classification of

specialists (which jack up rates), promoting experience loss rating (so

that

the fewer bad doctors pay more than the competent doctors) and

stiffening

regulation by state licensing boards to focus on the chronically harmful

physicians would help reduce the damage to innocent patients.

Five percent of physicians account for about fifty percent of

filed

medical malpractice lawsuits. The total amount paid out in verdicts and

settlements in all malpractice lawsuits is between $5 and $6 billion --

less

than the amount spent just on dog food in this country. Only ten percent

of

medical malpractice victims even file a claim

Yet according to the Harvard School of Public Health Physicians,

80,000 Americans die every year from medical negligence or worse just in

hospitals alone. Hundreds of thousands are significantly injured. By

comparison with the insurance premiums paid, one of the Harvard

physicians

estimated the cost of medical malpractice casualties to be over $60

billion

a year.

Dr. Hawk III's narrow frame of reference must have precluded him

from

reading the data and studies that contradict his precipitous attempt to

embrace the AMA with a sordid display of unethical recommendations. He

should log onto the websites Citizen.org and Centerjd.org for his

enlightenment (the web sites include data countering the allegation that

doctors are abandoning their practice).

It would be nice to refer him to an AMA website on medical

malpractice

and what his organization is doing about this preventable violence. But

there is none. The AMA is oblivious, showing no interest in this

nationwide

tragedy.

Dr. Hawk III's proposed resolution goes to Committee B and, if

approved, will go to the American Medical Association's House of

Delegates

for deliberation. Let Americans see how out of touch the AMA is with

reality

and how subservient to the insurance industry they continue to be.

###