Comments on: AP Poll: Most Want Malpractice Reform

By: wardmama4

wardmama4 — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:16:06 +0000

It also helps that what – 50% of Congress now – are lawyers themselves. Probably very bad ones to be in Congress rather than out chasing abulances and stupid smokers.

By: proreason

proreason — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:58:36 +0000

It’s fair if you are a congressman and you and your fellow crooks get 10 times as much campaign cash from lawyers as they do from industries that make “obscene” profits, like the Oil and Gas Industry.

Gee doc, how ARE you bitter clinger doctors spending that mountain of cash you make from unnecessary amputations and tonsilectomies?

By: MKirschMD

MKirschMD — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:50:49 +0000

Of course, most folks support tort reform. We need it so desperately that only trial lawyers and Democrats deny it. The medical malpractice system abuses innocent physicians like me and wastes tens of billions of dollars on defensive medicine. Do patients want medical tests that they don’t need that could cause complications? Couldn’t we use these billions of dollars elsewhere? Is it fair that innocent doctors are ensnared in the system and can dangle there for months of years? See http://www.MDWhistleblower.blogspot.com under Legal Quality category.

By: pdsand

pdsand — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:59:23 +0000

I particularly love about half way through the results there’s a little block that says “(SOME QUESTIONS HELD FOR LATER RELEASE)”. I don’t really pay attention to polls so I don’t know if that’s standard, but it basically looks like the poll results have been broken up to be meted out over time for greater impact. It seems to me like they’re trying to appear as if they have conducted more than one poll. You know you announce poll results one day, then a few days later announce more poll results, then a few days later, another poll result. It would appear to the public that three polls have been conducted. And if you can spin the polls in a way that they appear pro-Obama, then it triples the effect of convincing independents and such that the majority of Americans are pro-Obama and pro-healthcare, because there have been three separate polls and the majority was always for healthcare reform. I have to say it worked on me, not that it would change my opinion, but I definitely thought that the poll results from the other day, and these poll results were from two separate polls.

By: caligirl9

caligirl9 — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:50:23 +0000

I see this all the time with studies where I work. Word the question in the way you want it answered, and then present your results at a conference! TahDah! Instant valid opinion! Get federal money for your useless program!

By: pdsand

pdsand — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:30:42 +0000

Yeah, that question and poll result was their “money” result, and it’s obviously and badly biased when you look at the wording of the question. But that doesn’t matter. All we need to know is that Americans want hope and change.

By: proreason

proreason — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:48:27 +0000

pd, thanks.

Even the relatively innocuous wording is slanted. “harder to sue doctors and hospitals for making mistakes taking care of patients” implies that there really isn’t a problem. It’s just lawsuits about “mistakes”. But of course, many of the lawsuits aren’t about mistakes at all. They are extortion against the medical providers.

And for the other examples you gave, neither question is even remotely fair. The question that elicited the negative response is still highly slanted toward a government option because: a) government insurance plans will be more expensive, not less, because bureaucracies are incompetant AND expensive. The government will simply get its money in taxes and hidden fees rather than transparent fees. b) price setting by the governent doesn’t affect costs at all. Either you get lesser service, or the costs shift to some other service. And when prices don’t reflect the service, there is trouble (which is one of the core issues right now. A government option will triple down on the root of the problem.)

By: pdsand

pdsand — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:20:32 +0000

Pro, the wording of this question is fairly straight forward:
“In general, do you favor, oppose or neither favor nor oppose each of the following goals for changing the health care system? First/Next…
Making it harder to sue doctors and hospitals for making mistakes taking care of patients”

But check out the wording of the question that made a lot of news the other day saying that Americans “favor health care reform”

“[HALF OF RESPONDENTS WERE ASKED THIS VERSION OF THE QUESTION:] Next I’d like to tell you about some new ways that health insurance could be offered to people who don’t have jobs or whose jobs don’t give them health insurance. The federal government could create a way for these people to choose to buy health insurance from the government instead of from insurance companies.
The government would run the insurance plan and decide which medical care would be paid for and how much would be paid, like insurance companies do, which might mean people will have to pay some of the cost of their medical care themselves. The government insurance plan would be less expensive than other insurance plans because the government would not need to make a profit the way businesses do and because the government is able to negotiate lower prices with doctors and hospitals than insurance companies can. Would you favor the government offering people this insurance, oppose it, or neither favor nor oppose it?”

“[THE OTHER HALF OF RESPONDENTS WERE ASKED THIS VERSION OF THE QUESTION:] Next I’d like to tell you about some new ways that health insurance could be offered to people who don’t have jobs or whose jobs don’t give them health insurance. The federal government could create a way for these people to choose to buy health insurance from the government instead of from insurance companies.
The government insurance plan would be less expensive than other insurance plans, because the government would not need to make a profit the way businesses do and because the government is able to negotiate lower prices with doctors and hospitals than insurance companies can. Would you favor the government offering people this insurance, oppose it, or neither favor nor oppose it?”

The wording of the first question resulted in 44% favor, 38% oppose.
The second question resulted in 52% favor, 35% oppose.

By: pdsand

pdsand — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:08:58 +0000

The underlying poll as always is fascinating. Among other things,
36% felt that there are no Americans who are underinsured
49% felt that the government plan would make them pay more for their own health care
46/46 split on whether government health care would allow more people to get preventive medicine
42% thought health care reform would make the economy get worse
57% think health care reform would result in illegal aliens getting more health care
11% said you can never trust the government to do what’s right. It was not offered as an option.

Check it out: http://surveys.ap.org/data/GfK.....v%2018.pdf

By: pdsand

pdsand — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:42:36 +0000

“The poll suggests that patients see medical errors as fairly common. Twelve percent of those who’d been in the hospital in the past five years — and 10 percent of those who’d been to the doctor in that time period — said they thought there had been a mistake in their treatment. People were more forgiving of errors in the doctor’s office than in hospitals…”

“If (people) knew about the frequency of medical errors, we believe they would have answered this question very differently,” said Linda Lipsen, a top lobbyist for the American Association for Justice, which represents lawyers.”

It sounds like they know. And it sounds like they still want tort reform.

By: Chuckk

Chuckk — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:34:39 +0000

I wish they had asked who was most hated, lawyers or politicians?

By: proreason

proreason — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:35:27 +0000

“The AP poll found that 54 percent of Americans favor making it harder to sue doctors and hospitals for mistakes taking care of patients, while 32 percent are opposed. The rest are undecided or don’t know. ”

Wouldn’t it be interesting to see the poll question on this one?

I would speculate that most people are decidedly in favor of the ability to sue for certain “mistakes taking care of patients”. Like the ones that ruin lives and kill people because of incompetance or bad procedures. It’s the nonsense lawsuits that people object to. The legitimate ones actually improve medical care because they can create safer practices.

I’ll bet that the wording of the question moved the needle from around 75 percent down to 54 percent.