“DRIVER’S LICENSES” FOR DOCTORS AND LAWYERS

Healthcare
part III
Drivers Licenses for Doctors & Lawyers

While bad doctors and dishonest lawyers are not the primary reason for sky rocketing medical costs, they still cost us money. The practical solution to frivolous malpractice litigation and consequential high insurance costs, and the way to save lives, is to institute a points system for medical licenses, like that which we have for driver’s licenses. Particularly egregious offenses, like being drunk or otherwise impaired while treating a patient, would automatically trigger revocation of the offender’s license to practice. 

If we apply this kind of “tough love” to pilots, why not doctors? If a frivolous lawsuit is brought, hold the patient and their lawyer liable. Apply the same driver’s license metric to the lawyer and fine the lawyer’s malpractice insurance. We-the-People have learned that we cannot leave it up to our elected leaders (many of whom are lawyers), corrupted as they are by special interest groups like the pharmaceutical industry, to make hard decisions that need to be made now.  This simple points system will take the onus off innocent, honest people who are harmed each year and put it squarely on the shoulders of the patients, medical providers, and lawyers who try to game the system.

"If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free." P.J. O’Rourke