Socialized legal care
Posted by Richard on September 5, 2009
Via another friend, I learned of "A Doctor's Plan for Legal Industry Reform," a wickedly funny Wall Street Journal op-ed by Richard B. Rafal, M.D. (emphasis added):
At a town-hall meeting in Portsmouth, N.H., last month, our uninformed lawyer in chief suggested that we physicians would rather chop off a foot than manage diabetes since we would make more money doing surgery. Then President Obama compounded his attack by claiming a doctor's reimbursement is between "$30,000" and "$50,000" for such amputations! (Actually, such surgery costs only about $1,500.)
Physicians have never been so insulted. Because of these affronts, I will gladly volunteer for the important duty of controlling and regulating lawyers. Since most of what lawyers do is repetitive boilerplate or pushing paper, physicians would have no problem dictating what is appropriate for attorneys. We physicians know much more about legal practice than lawyers do about medicine.
RTWT. I especially like the idea of having committees of doctors determining what legal procedures are necessary and setting the fees.
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