The high cost of medical insurance could be decreased if each insurance company would offer insurance policy coverage, similar to the airlines crash insurance, at reasonable cost, paid by your health care provider to cover any unfortunate condition or death that resulted in negligent care during any procedure such as surgery. This coverage would pay out similar to a life insurance policy and would provide payout to your family in the event of your death during surgery or similar procedure or would payout a smaller amount if let’s say you lost the use of one of your limbs or the result of surgery caused you to have the need for ongoing care (ongoing coverage payout) upon a complete investigation into the mishap. This policy would protect the physicians from being sued for negligent care, (the cost of malpractice insurance would drop) but the physician could still be accountable for the slip-up resulting in the removal of his/her license or some other type of disciplinary action by the medical board. Our normal insurance would be less without the burden of malpractice insurance trickling down to our health care provider. Each surgery or procedure would be categorized by the risks involved and a cost applied for the item. After a successful surgery or procedure a small percentage would be returned to your health care provider and the larger portion be applied to the insurers cost. If you or your health care provider decided not to take this policy, you would not have any right for restitution in the event of a slip-up. Ok guys, tear this one up!
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Great idea! I was thinking of something similar. Certain doctors would only except patients that sign a "waiver" limiting the amount of money they can sue. The patient would either pay much less for their insurance and/or be able to see the doctor quicker (only wait 1 week vs 3 months).
You might worry about the "bad" doctors signing-up for this type of practice since they cannot get malpractice insurance. However, in many states there is a doctor database available to the public that lists any complaints and malpractice claims.
Excellent plan. Insurers would evaluate the performance of physicians and adjust cost of coverage. If you want to go to a physician with a history of problems, you will pay more for coverage. (If you want the drive a car that is a target of thieves, you will pay more for coverage.) In effect, your insurance covers the cost of evaluating the physician (or hospital).
This is probably marketable. Insurance companies tend to avoid new thengs. But it might be of interest to HMOs, which could combine HMO insurance with malpractice insurance.
If there was insurance you could buy to protect against medical mistakes, there would be lots of claims.
The only reason why there isn't more money in malpractice insurance and claims is that the process is painful, expensive and difficult.
If there was a way to say, "I was harmed by a medical mistake" and no process besides, "Where is my check", insurance companies would have to pay out much more than people want to spend.
To reduce the cost of health insurance, I prefer the idea of an income tax credit for health insurance premiums paid. The IRS could become the "watchdog" government agency to investigate insurance abuse and fraud.
I think an individual insurance policy to hedge against injury or death at the hands of a medical professional could be purchased from Lloyd's of London, although I haven't inquired about it.