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Whether he was drunk or not is irrelevant to the root of the problem. Having a life altering accident like this in the United States cost hundreds of thousands
by slg 5y ago
Whether he was drunk or not is irrelevant to the root of the problem. Having a life altering accident like this in the United States cost hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars. That puts people in a situation in which their only hope is to sue someone. It doesn't matter who is actually at fault. Fault isn't the motivating factor. The motivating factor is that people need money to pay for their care and a lawsuit is the most realistic way to get that money.
- londons_explore 5y agoIn any country, someone would have to pay for that very expensive care. Even somewhere with 'free' government healthcare, it's still the taxpayers who pay.
- Bud 5y agoBut they'd pay a lot, lot less in a more efficient system that wasn't ruthlessly optimized in about 20 ways for max profit and nothing else.
- giantg2 5y agoDo you have some data on that? My assumption is that removing costly litigation could save money, but I haven't seen any case studies on it.
- Bud 5y agoSure. The US pays far more than other first-world countries for health care and gets much worse health outcomes out of it. This is very well documented. https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2021/aug/mirror-mirror-2021-reflecting-poorly?gclid=CjwKCAjwrqqSBhBbEiwAlQeqGjNDhvZg6-mdQKnmS4aYFEXf89NellyyWgglQpE3CAl8HOL4VzmnXhoCpqwQAvD_BwE https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2... https://healthsystemsfacts.org/ https://healthsystemsfacts.org/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2019/08/08/how-us-healthcare-spending-per-capita-compares-with-other-countries-infographic/?sh=75c776a5575d https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2019/08/08/how-us...
- giantg2 5y agoI'm aware of that stuff from the general healthcare standpoint. I'm asking about from healthcare expenses from these sorts of lawsuits. I'm wondering if just having costs covered would prevent the suits from happening or if people would still go after pain/suffering, lost wages, etc. It seems I didn't understand that you were just talking about the healthcare part.
- slg 5y agoI'm not clear on the distinction you are trying to make with this comment. I said the taxpayers should pay in my first comment. I'm not pretending this care would be free.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- lotsofpulp 5y agoI will agree that making individuals responsible for excessive healthcare costs would be inefficient, but I think the current system with out of pocket maximums should be able to handle this. What the current system needs to be tweaked to do is provide more subsidies do everyone has insurance (and a mandate for everyone to buy it, in lieu of additional taxes for single payer).
- drc500free 5y agoThis is also gets baked into the high cost of auto insurance, which is mandated by the government.