Is inequality a problem?

Regarding impacts on medical costs, consider this.

Around 20 years ago, Cessna quit building the small single engine planes that had been their bread and butter since day 1. It was not that people didn't want to buy them- it was because the cost of the liability insurance to manufacture them had grown to the point it constituted 1/3 of price of an airplane, and was killing sales. .

The insurance cost was a reflection of the settlements and judgements, and that is what got out of hand. Same thing is happening with medical expenses, and the huge number of lawyers promoting lawsuits.

Consider this example-
In 2007, a Florida jury found Cessna liable for the 1989 crash of a Cessna 185 in Florida, and returned a record $480 million verdict against the manufacturer. Nobody died in the accident, but the three occupants of the 1966-model taildragger were injured in the crash and ensuing fire. The award consists of $400 million in punitive damages and $80 million in compensatory damages. That airplane was 23 years old at the time. This in effect meant that the product liability was virtually unlimited over time, and that made the cost of insuring an airplane exorbitant- raising the cost of a small plane out of the viable market.

About half the ads on TV today are either from pharma companies publishing disclaimer statements for products- which makes them harder to sue- or from lawyers or the head-hunter firms which specialize in finding clients for lawyers to sue over a medication, procedure or product. That is why America has more than three times the lawyers per capita of the next closest nation on planet earth- and all those judgements get built into the cost of every level of care, of prescriptions, anything to do with health care. That's why a Tylenol that cost a nickel at the grocery costs $15 at the hospital.

This was not always so- because the codes of the bar association used to prohibit the practice, know originally as "Ambulance chasing". Smart lawyers sued over that as a violation of their free speech.... and of course because it was a barrier between them and a pot of gold.

 

Malpractice lawsuits have been in decline for quite some time, so that is not one of the reasons for the rising costs of healthcare.

https://truecostofhealthcare.org/malpractice_statistics/

 

Very few are ever actually tried. Most are settled the minute the lawyer walks into the office with an injured client or a surviving child and/or widow. It's a damn site cheaper over the long haul.

 

You didn't click on the link. It covers both paid out claims and settled claims.

Many states already have caps in place for malpractice claims.

 

And the fear of law suits drives costs as well. And many cases are never filed.

 

Yes, I know that is your statement of faith, but the facts do not confirm your beliefs.

 

Yes they do but cause the fact you presented thus far do not contradict anything I've said.

 

C'mon, man. Why are you hung up on a common usage of ton?

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/tons

tons
/ (tʌnz) informal /

pl n
a large amount or number:tons of money; I have tons of shoes

 

What do you mean by "common"?

Kidding!