The Most Expensive Healthcare System in the World is also the Most Dysfunctional
The most expensive healthcare system in the world per capita is also the most dysfunctional. The United States maintains the most expensive health system in the world per capita. According to recent studies the US lags behind many other countries on many health statistics. Surprisingly, infant mortality in the United States is more than twice as high in Japan, Norway and Sweden and worse than in Poland and Hungary. According to the Center for Disease Control, 1.7 million Americans will acquire an infection while in the hospital and nearly 100,000 of these individuals will die from the infection. Interestingly enough, between 50,000 and 100,000 patients will die each year from preventable medical errors. Health consumers are no different than retail consumers and they suffer from the tragic effects of preventable medical errors. In fact, when a health provider or hospital makes a mistake, many end up paying for it for the rest of their life. In what other business does one charge you or seek money from you for a condition acquired by their own negligence? Typically, when one acquires a disease while in the hospital, the hospital will charge for the hospital acquired conditions. These conditions may include articles left in the body after surgery, blood infections, urinary tract infections, surgical site infections, etc. At the Philadelphia Medical Malpractice Law Firm of Reiff & Bily, we believe that hospitals and doctors should be held accountable for preventable medical errors or the mistakes they make, just like anybody else.
Since 1979, the Philadelphia Medical Malpractice Lawyers at Reiff & Bily have helped hold medical providers and hospitals accountable for injuries that have harmed patients because the care failed to meet required standards of skill in accordance with generally accepted medical standards of those with similar training and experience which causes harm to patients. Unfortunately, the dysfunction of our health care system is the result of greed and incompetence by insurance companies whose bottom line is profits over healthcare and safety. Over the past five years health insurance premiums have risen 5.5 times faster on average than inflation, 2.3 times faster than business income and 4 times faster than workers’ earnings. I have seen all too many cases where somebody was prematurely discharged from the hospital or not given a test due to the fact that their insurance company would not approve the same, or, even worse, because they have no health insurance. Obviously, something is wrong with our present health care system. Americans and the government recognize that medical care and medical malpractice are issues that deserve our immediate attention.
