[john70t]

-Is it the national debt due to invading the wrong country? -- UM, no. Medicare reimbursements have been falling for decades.

Yup. The effects of Star Wars national debt and Texas SNL fraud bailout keeps on rippling, decades after the fact. It seems to have started when the mega corps found they could make a buck by selling out their jobs/training/etc to other countries. There's your "patriotism". Like Enron, everyone was happy when they were part of the program.


-Is it the diversion of educational funds (that could train a multitude more doctors) into the pockets of porkbelly monopolies? --Um, no. The problem isn't a lack of doctors. The problem is that no matter how many doctors you train, none of them want to work for peanuts. At least not any that you would want operating on YOUR grandma.
Umm, supply and demand benefiting the consumer? I know, I was'nt very good with business stuff in school either.

-Is it the cost and outrageously draining system of training advanced medical personell that creates a closed and elitest grouping of those who succeed? -- Um, no. I'm not sure exactly what you mean by this, would you rather have an easier method of training so that the doctor who cuts YOUR belly open doesn't know his arse from a spleen?

[sacrcasm]Yeah you're right. 4-6 years of 16 hour days in residency and a quarter million plus in school debt, combined with entering a group structure of burocracy more focused on economics and legality will obviously create a better physician. "I'm not touching her, I might get sued"[/sacrcasm].
There's a reason the drug companies spend 3 times more on advertizing than RnD, and that 80% of issued patents are dosage changes with some inerts thrown in.

-Is it the inconsistent tracking and correction of bad medical personell by the AMA creates a feding frenzy for medical tort suits? --Um, no. Poor tracking of physicians is not the reason behind the current tort nightmare. The reason is unrestrained, unethical ambulance chasing lawyers who throw any piece of ***** lawsuit up against the wall because they know it costs the insurance company less to settle than to fight even a frivolous lawsuit.

Then why are perscriptions still handwritten, and drug interactions/overmedication still one of the highest causes of death in the US? I recall a story of some Indian quack with a licence who kept jumping states that had something like 50 operating room deaths to his name. That puts Dahmer to shame.

-Is the legal system? The insurance system? Is it by design? -- Um, no. I guess the legal system is addressed in the section above but malpractice insurance has little to do with medicare reimbursement rates, except for the fact that they factor into the physicians overhead, but that is the same whether you accept medicare or private insurance. The medicare rate is still much less.

McDonalds forgot to tell you milkshakes are now made with liquid nitrogen? Oh well.
I agree with frivolous tort reform to a point, but even if the victim doesn't profit, the violator still gets punished. Don't you agree with the law acting as a vindicator?