Charlie........I'm not afraid of foreigners.

And you are being equally as nationalistic as I am.

Oh I'm not my dear Swallow.

I just give data by country to help u to compare and refute stupid arguments of Thraxle and it's not MY data (lol !!!) but data from international institutes.

U should be aware Europeans have forgotten nationalism since the last world war. Not the americans. I can be cool everywhere, just not like u ! and speaking french, english, german and little bit spanish and italian. What else ?

Find me a study that disagrees. I'll believe that before I believe your Republican propganda talking points :).

A. I have no desire to leave the U.S.
B. I don't care that I speak only English, the rest of the world speaks English, why learn another language?
C. All your "outside statistics" didn't prove your point
D. Ask your European counterparts if they have nationalism.....I believe you'll find yourself in the minority
E. I am Thraxle

http://www.aarpmagazine.org/health/health_care_costs.html

"Indeed, perhaps the most significant reason Americans are drowning in health care debt may shock you: Americans are getting far too much unnecessary care. Of our total $2.3 trillion health care bill last year, a whopping $500 billion to $700 billion was spent on treatments, tests, and hospitalizations that did nothing to improve our health. Even worse, new evidence suggests that too much health care may actually be killing us. According to estimates by Elliott Fisher, M.D., a noted Dartmouth researcher, unnecessary care leads to the deaths of as many as 30,000 Medicare recipients annually."


This isn't any hard evidence, but part of the tort reform that is necessary would curb the need for irrational health care. That is, healthcare such as tests or treatments that are unnecessary and unbeneficial to the patient. Of that $500-$700 billion, I have to think that a good portion is a part of doctors covering their asses in fear of a negligence lawsuit.

I don't have anything concrete though. Take it for what it's worth.

sorry, was confused about wealth.

"Consumers pay in advance for expected tort damages through higher prices for goods and services. For example, the price of a medical procedure includes money to compensate the physician for his malpractice insurance premiums. Second, only about 22 cents of every $1 going through the system compensates for economic losses, with the rest going to legal fees (54 cents) and compensation for non-economic losses such as "pain and suffering" (24 cents)."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB112873085838663424.html

Thrax that quote doesn't indicate that law suites are the single largest driver of health care costs. Nor does yours Cloe (not sure if it was directed at me..if it wasn't then please ignore).

Thrax, I appreciate you admit your evidence is weak. I'd appreciate it more if you'd retract your statement since you can't back it up.

Chloe*

And yes, evidence is weak in both directions. This page from the CBO states just that.

http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=4641&type=0&sequence=5

(last paragraph)
"In short, the current state of data and economic analysis do not allow CBO to judge whether the costs of the tort system are efficient or excessive on the whole. What is clear, however, is that those costs are large enough to be significant for the U.S. economy. That fact helps raise the question of whether changes to the current tort system could reduce the system's costs without undermining its benefits."

However, the WSJ article I cited earlier disagrees and states that reform of the current tort system would save lives. So it's pretty ambiguous.

FACT
We need healthcare reform. We have too many fat people, too many poor people that already cost us money etc...

Limiting damages would help, the US is far too litigious when it comes to healthcare and frankly far too many other things as well. BUT the fact that this is part of the initial solution is not reason to balk or stop other viable solutions to sound healthcare policy.