The numbers speak for themselves. There are approximately 14,000 physicians in Illinois physicians versus 68,000 in Canada. And the lawsuits quoted in Illinois are only for docs with liability insurance from ISMIE Mutual. And of all the legal actions commenced against physicians in Canada, only 125 legal claims went to trial. Seems like those Canucks need some lessons from their brash neighbors to the south.
Source:
The Medical Litigation Crisis, 2005 Illinois State Medical Society
Canadian Medical Protective Association, Annual Report 2003
Canadians have access to free medical care. Americans pay gobs of money for their care. If something goes wrong in America people need/want/like to sue because there is a lot of money at stake. A bad outcome is more acceptable when the correction/treatment doesn't suck up all your money. Free medical care is sexy. Long live Canada. Please no bitching and moaning about wait times for procedures. Canada's system is underfunded and would be the shiznit with a little tweaking.
Posted by: Jason | January 10, 2006 at 12:22 PM
This doesn't even mention the differences in wasted health care. I've worked in both systems. You don't order a HEAD CT scan for every headache or head trauma that walks throught he door in Canada. Multiply that by every complaint for every patient and we're talking billions of dollars. I'll bet there are more MRI scanners in Chicago than in all of Canada. And that's not a good thing for Illinois.
Posted by: ds | January 20, 2006 at 11:57 PM