From this article:
Earlier this year the Los Angeles Times reported the somewhat surprising statistic that the most performed operation in America is the cesarean section, where a baby is delivered through an incision in the mother's belly and uterus. C-sections are now performed in 31% of births, up from 4.5% in 1965.
They have not increased because they're more expensive than routine deliveries.
It's because of lawsuits.
Trial lawyers helped create a medical crisis through malpractice suits that raise costs while driving doctors from their practices.
Old Democratic presidential aspirant John Edwards won $175 million in judgments over a 12-year period suing doctors, hospitals and insurance companies, everyone but the candy stripers, over infant cerebral palsy cases allegedly caused by mishandled deliveries.
As the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists noted in a study in 2003, cerebral palsy could not be blamed in the "vast majority" of cases on delivery trouble. Edwards enriched himself by using bad science to bankrupt innocent physicians.
The New York Times has reported that as a result of such lawsuits, "doctors have responded by changing the way they deliver babies, often seeing a relatively minor anomaly on a fetal heart monitor as justification for an immediate cesarean."
Obama, his focus on greedy pediatricians, told the American Medical Association that he is "not advocating caps on malpractice awards." Even though they might significantly lower medical costs, Obama said he believes caps "can be unfair to people who've been wrongfully harmed."
Not to mention a key Democratic constituency — trial lawyers.
The accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers says about 10% of the cost of medical service is attributable to medical malpractice lawsuits. Roughly 2% is caused by direct costs of the lawsuits; an additional 5% to 9% is due to expenses run up by defensive medicine.
They have not increased because they're more expensive than routine deliveries.
It's because of lawsuits.
Trial lawyers helped create a medical crisis through malpractice suits that raise costs while driving doctors from their practices.
Old Democratic presidential aspirant John Edwards won $175 million in judgments over a 12-year period suing doctors, hospitals and insurance companies, everyone but the candy stripers, over infant cerebral palsy cases allegedly caused by mishandled deliveries.
As the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists noted in a study in 2003, cerebral palsy could not be blamed in the "vast majority" of cases on delivery trouble. Edwards enriched himself by using bad science to bankrupt innocent physicians.
The New York Times has reported that as a result of such lawsuits, "doctors have responded by changing the way they deliver babies, often seeing a relatively minor anomaly on a fetal heart monitor as justification for an immediate cesarean."
Obama, his focus on greedy pediatricians, told the American Medical Association that he is "not advocating caps on malpractice awards." Even though they might significantly lower medical costs, Obama said he believes caps "can be unfair to people who've been wrongfully harmed."
Not to mention a key Democratic constituency — trial lawyers.
The accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers says about 10% of the cost of medical service is attributable to medical malpractice lawsuits. Roughly 2% is caused by direct costs of the lawsuits; an additional 5% to 9% is due to expenses run up by defensive medicine.