NY Medical Malpractice lawyer has solution for medical malpractice

The answer is simple. But first, some background.

Doctors typically don't want anything to do with lawyers. Lawyers are viewed with scorn and villified by many doctors.
Lawyers, just as the general public, rely on doctors for their own health care. There are some doctors who claim that they over-order tests in order to practice 'defensive medicine'. Others cry that lawsuits are responsible for outrageous verdicts that drive up health care costs. Doctors also blame lawyers and lawsuits for their outrageous medical malpractice insurance premiums. Yet, the more I hear these same arguments, the more I wonder why nobody focuses on the real problem.

I've been following the arguments on both sides of the malpractice issue since 1985, when I first entered law school. My family was all doctors; my father too. Some say I was the black sheep of the family. It's been almost 22 years since I first started practicing medical malpractice law in New York and I continue to be amazed at how little is given to the actual problem; Medical Malpractice.

Remember I said the solution was simple? It is, at least in theory.
Get rid of the malpractice and there's no problem any more. There, I've said it. Now, let's see it happen.

Here's the logic and ripple effect behind that argument:
If you have no malpractice, then there's no injured victim.
There's no extended hospital stay; no extensive surgical repair; no untimely deaths due to medical carelessness.
That means there's less costs to the patients; less revenue to the doctors and hospitals; less money paid by medicare and medicaid for medical costs.

That means that doctor's malpractice insurance companies will wither away and go out of business since there will be no need to insure any doctors. That means lots of lost jobs and income for insurance executives. Baaad news for them. Good news to obstetricians, neurosurgeons and orthopedists who pay almost $200,000 per year, if not more, just to get insurance coverage.

If there's no malpractice, then there's no lawsuits against doctors and hospitals. That means there's no business for medical malpractice lawyers like myself. Looks like I'll have to go into the real estate business instead. If plaintiff's lawyers are not bringing any medical malpractice lawsuits then medical malpractice defense attorneys and their large Manhattan law firms will go out of business, since they rely on lawsuits to keep them in business and on retainer by the insurance companies. Baad for them, and for me.

If there's no injured victims, and doctor's insurance rates disappear, then there should no longer be any friction between doctors and lawyers. Patients will love their doctors; doctors will love the lawyers (if that's somehow possible) and the insurance and legal industry for medical malpractice will head off into the sunset, never to appear again.

It's at this point that I wake up from my daydream and shake my head. "This will never happen," I think. Too idealistic. Although it would be ideal if there were no carelessness by physicians in NY, the reality is that only a small portion of doctors are responsible for the vast majority of malpractice lawsuits today.

Why aren't the critics of health care reform focused on the injured victim? Instead, they're more worried about health care costs than the permanent disability of an innocent and helpless patient who was injured at the hands of an incompetent doctor or hospital.

Stay tuned for my next daydream, when I explain the solution for world peace.