How Young do you start them?

Quote:

One thing that will likely help us to walk away when it is time is the threat of the parasite of our nation...Trial Lawyers. *You see both of us have practices in the medical field. *Last thing I need is some bozo wrongfully taking away everything I've worked for my whole life.

Spealum,

This is probably the most arrogant and self-serving thing I have ever read on this forum! - Trial Lawyers don't take away what you worked for ! - The people in the jury do with a lot of help from yourself! - Average citizens that determine that you screwed up and took away a persons mobility for the rest of their life! - Give us a break!! -

I for one believe that Trial Lawyers are one of the only things that protect the average Joe from the Power of Corporations and the AMA! But remember the Trial Lawyers NEVER make the Descision - They only state the case!

Maybe the average Joes here should complain about high the costs of Medical care have become here. To allow you to retire at age 39 with 4-5 million! - Maybe you guys are billing so many patients, that you don't have time to watch out for their safety!

End of rant!

[Bob_Smith]

Kudos to Zipper and Cut-Throat for the two previous posts. Well said. Couldn't agree more.

[unclemick]

To say I'm mildly prejudiced is perhaps an understatement - I carry zero health insurance (eleven years and counting) and as a loyal American try to specifically go out of my way to avoid American doctors so they can concentrate on 'rich' people. Rants are fun. The real world is more complex but I figure a foriegn doc can skip the country to duck a lawsuit and any money he manages to take with him may go farther than some of our past foreign aid.

[platypus19]

Hmm, Spealum's comment was maybe insufficiently diplomatic, but his point that ER frees a professional person from constant worry about making a catastrophic mistake is entirely correct.

Health care is a real puzzle for me, not being among those with great health and access to favorably priced group insurance plans. Lately it's occurred to me that I live close enough to the border and know enough Spanish to go down and get me some of that good ol' Mexican health care when I need it. I hear rumors about people in South Texas doing just that for prescriptions, dentistry and other medical type things.

Well, I am very disappointed that Cut-Throat
thinks Spealum has the most arrogant post yet.
I always assumed that I had the arrogance
title locked up

John Galt

[Telly]

Quote:

Am I the only one when it comes to 'stuff' the best part is the wanting of it? *Once you get it, it's rather deflating 'now what' kind of feeling. *I suppose realizing this is the first step. *

Ah, now you are sensing the real power. Soon you will be able to walk on the rice paper without making a sound.

Or collapsing our living beyond your means based economy!

[wabmester]

Quote:

This is probably the most arrogant and self-serving thing I have ever read on this forum!

Translation: welcome to the forum, Spealum!

Quote:

Trial Lawyers don't take away what you worked for ! - The people in the jury do with a lot of help from yourself! - Average citizens that determine that you screwed up and took away a persons mobility for the rest of their life!

Translation: blame the jurors and our piss-poor educational institutions, not the poor misunderstood lawyers.

Quote:

Maybe the average Joes here should complain about high the costs of Medical care have become here. To allow you to retire at age 39 with 4-5 million!

Translation: Spealum, we could really use some free medical advice around here. * Sorry to hear about those student loans, by the way.

[unclemick]

Heh heh

In short, start trust funds for kids at/before birth so when they grow uo - they have time to reform all these pesky tort, medical, globlization/ job arbitrage problems. We need a favorite rant thread.

[Martha]

Quote:

One thing that will likely help us to walk away when it is time is the threat of the parasite of our nation...Trial Lawyers. You see both of us have practices in the medical field. Last thing I need is some bozo wrongfully taking away everything I've worked for my whole life. I don't hate my job. It is rather enjoyable. What is stressful is managing malcontent employees, and dealing with the occasional PITA patient.....and the ever present threat of litigation.

Besides simply doing the best at your job you can, IMHO the best way to avoid a malpractice suit is to have a good relationship with your patients and if a mistake is made, fess up, say you are sorry, and do everything you can to fix the problem at no cost to the patient. People are far less inclined to sue those they know care about them and will do everything in their power to fix their mistakes.

Martha

[Spealum]

Yikes fellas, I feel as though I have been unjustly drawn and quartered! Before you lop off my head, if I may have a few words......

In addition to investing our youth in higher education, we also had to borrow 350K for our educations in addition to what we could raise by working along the way. Upon acquiring our licenses and passing our boards, we further leveraged ourselves by 2 million dollars buying our practices and buildings. Talk about starting in the hole! Leverage is powerful, dangerous, scary, and at times, absolutely necessary. A big part of my projection stems from being able to recoup that 2 million dollar investment, which very well may not materialize due to the practices being in an underserved and less desireable area.

Oh, by the way, we provide great jobs with very nice benefits for 19 people. We pay a full 50% in taxes thanks to double helpings of FICA and Medicare and the great state of wisconsin generously helping itself to it's 7%. Perhaps you've heard of the AMT. Kinda neat losing all your deductions. I don't even get to write off my health insurance....but my employees do! You might also be interested to know before burning me at the stake that we donate about 100k annually in care to those less fortunate, as well as fund health care missions to the mountains of Mexico. I hope to be able to begin participating in these trips soon. I believe I rank among the most contributory members of society, by any metric. I spend my days doing whatever I can to make peoples lives better, as well as my nights and weekends when necessary. Over the 4th of July I came back from a short family vacation 150 miles away to treat a patient in need.

Further, were it not for my being so fortunate as to make a 300% return on my stock market investments in the last 2 years, I wouldn't be doing so well either. Oh, and you guessed it, more leverage here! Luck....sure some of it, but I also spend countless hours reading and researching potential investments.

If this is the first you've heard of outrageous verdicts and damage awards, then welcome to Earth! Of course justified damages should be paid. Too frequently however, said damages are not deserved, or are grossly inflated. And don't forget Mr. Esquire has got his hand out for his 30-50%.

Forgive me for being a little tired, a lot stressed, sick of worrying about lawyers, and maybe wanting to dream a little. I am not a me/I person. I decided to post to try to give a few thoughts on the importance of starting early. I also thought it rude to not quickly introduce myself considering I have never before posted. I belive I have offered a couple valid points to the thread.

I go through life basically keeping my head down, trying to keep a low profile, always cautious of the jealous prick who decides they need to find a reason to sue me. Forgive me for making the faulty assumption that I could seek refuge on an anonymous internet message board composed of those with similar interests. Forgive me for dreaming a little. I guess I made two mistakes; firstly forgetting about the 'Dream Police' and secondly not knowing I wasn't allowed to participate.

Please allow me the indulgence of a third forgivness for being somewhat long winded, but I fear this may be my final post, so I'd like to try to set the record straight. I am most certainly not a Me First type of person. I have made some big investments in myself and my community and I have been fortunate for them to give the early appearance of paying off. I have found that the more I do for others, the more it comes back to me in dividends....a Karma, if you will. Any person of very high motivation and reasonable intelligence could do what I have done. I hold no hostility towards any of you. I would trust that you no longer hold me in such a high state of disregard either, after hearing my story. If you do, you're either an imbittered jealous fool, or worse yet, a communist. Oh well, never was out for the Leninist Vote.

If after reading thus far, you still wish me ill, well......Bite me! If you've changed your mind....hey take your Mulligan. Chalk it up as a bad day. I've been there too. To those of you who have manged to ER, I wish you much continued success. To those of us who hope to join you....Keep the Faith!

[Telly]

[quote]

Forgive me for making the faulty assumption that I could seek refuge on an anonymous internet message board composed of those with similar interests. *Forgive me for dreaming a little. *I guess I made two mistakes; firstly forgetting about the 'Dream Police' and secondly not knowing I wasn't allowed to participate./quote]

Ouch! I see your point. No problem here, so...

Welcome aboard, friend!

[wabmester]

Spealum, you must feel like you've stumbled upon a collection of complete and utter sphincters. Well, you're right. But we enjoy receiving as well as giving. Nice retort! Hang around, and you'll have ample opportunity to use the "bite me" rejoinder....

[platypus19]

Spealum, I hope you can see your way clear to stick around.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

By the way, we use "blow me" as a standard, and "bite me" is a little too close for copyright.

Please feel free to stick around, pull all those pointy little sticks out, and take the time to come up with a really unique and biting flip o' the bird for people who jump to judgement.

Cant blame us though, we have nothing else to do with our ample spare time than to enhance the available drama.

Hello TH! How about "You know what you can do with
your dryer sheets." Or. if you want to upgrade
from "Blow me!" how about "mal vu" (F). ?

John Galt

[unclemick]

Blow me is good.

Dream police is new to me.

We all have our personal crosses to bear - I seem to have been cursed with a family tree containing:

a marine, a doctor(shrink), a dumb sister who votes republican, an owner of 3 Wendy's out west who's a workaholic, 3 or 4 who don't drink or smoke and run marathons as hobbies - thank goodness no Canadians though.

True to my roots (fire breathing SW Washington liberal, land of the PUD, my Dad was a union organizer) - I still don't like American doctor's - heh, heh - of course if I get really in need - there's talk and what you gotta do. I generally grumble at auto repairs also.

And then there's the brite side - nobody's accused me of being a 13 yr old from Missoula lately and no Canadians in the family - yet.

Curmudgeon in training - start by insulting everyone. Dream police is good - I like that one.

[newellcr]

Hello Spealum,

Whaaaaa Ha Ha Ha! Thanks for the chuckle. This is a crotchety group, isn't it? Something tells me you will fit in just fine. Take care.

Hey Vale,

What color bike does your boy want?

Cheers to all,

Chris

Quote:

Hey Vale, What color bike does your boy want? Chris

Hello Chris,
Som (Son of Mine) is more focused on 'features' rather than color scheme at the moment but he will want to match his water bottle to the selected color scheme once it's settled.
I didn't expect that a thread on a kid's bike would morph into trial lawyers' sins and self sacrificing doctors' ansgt but hey, glad to be of service.

[unclemick]

Well - it could get worse - have you explained the 'facts about dryer sheet recyling' yet.

Hmmm - maybe when he's a little older. heh heh

[cute fuzzy bunny]

LOL...yeah, dont underestimate our ability to hijack a thread into strange and new realms.