national health care- part two

Sorry about the delay between postings. Between job hunting(yes, right now I'm part of the 10% plus unemployed Americans), family stuff and just trying to keep my sanity I've been pretty busy. Anyway, Here's some more of my ideas to help us out.

4.) More ideas on keeping costs down.

Put caps on malpractice suits and on legal fees collected(by the Lawyers). Many states, New York and California are two examples, have little or no cap on malpractice settlements(for pain and suffering, etc...)in these states health care is much more expensive because the cost to insurers and practitioners is more likely to be much higher. In Colorado, where I live, there is a $250'000.00 cap on punitive damages. This means, for example, that If something bad happens and you get screwed up for life, you may be awarded whatever amount is needed to cover your medical care and your costs for the rest of your life. However, you won't get twenty million dollars for getting scalded by a hot cup of coffee, that's why you rarely here about ridiculous, frivolous lawsuits originating in Colorado.

By capping what Lawyers could collect we would also drive down the cost of everything, not just medical care (I've heard that about 10%, maybe more, of the cost of everything that we purchase is to cover the cost of potential litigation.) Right now, the standard practice is for a lawyer to receive as much as 33% of whatever they win for their client( I've also heard of cases where they'd received as much as 40-45% of a settlement.) If this were capped at about 10% or so we would all save a lot of money.

5.)Loser pays.

In many other countries, If you sue somebody then you'd better have a really good reason to do so, because, if you lose then you have to pay all of the legal and court costs involved, that means yours and whoever you tried to sue. We don't have that kind of system in place, that's why many Americans are ready to sue at the drop of a hat. If the U.S.A adopted this practice then we'd all get a break. Another thing is to take away the right to sue someone if you are hurt while committing a crime, we've all heard of someone getting killed or crippled when they tried to rob a store or a person and their would-be victim defended themselves or their property. In Mexico, as an example, if you're hurt while doing a crime then you're screwed, no lawsuit for you(should of thought of that before you tried to commit a crime!)