Dear Editor,
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a wakeup call for many people to start taking their healthcare more seriously. Unfortunately, for many Florida workers, paychecks have not kept pace with skyrocketing health insurance premiums and deductibles. This has only gotten worse with rising inflation rates that make everything more expensive.
Healthcare experts are telling Americans that they need to visit their doctors more often. But how can we do that when it’s becoming nearly impossible for middle-class families to pay the bill? In reality, rising health insurance costs are forcing more families to skip a doctor visit when they feel sick.
A big reason why Florida workers are seeing their health insurance rates go up is because of out-of-control frivolous lawsuits filed by crooked personal injury attorneys. Florida has some of the highest medical liability payouts of any state in the country and trial lawyers know it. Don’t believe me? When was the last time you heard about a lawyer who took a case when there was no insurance money to go after or no deep pocket to pick? These frivolous lawsuits become a problem for the rest of us when insurance companies are forced to raise their rates in order to pay their legal fees.
Until our elected leaders start to rein in greedy trial lawyers who are incentivized to profit off other people’s pain, nothing will change—except our growing health insurance costs.
Bernard Stasen
Warehouse Worker
Lawsuits are Driving Up Healthcare Costs added by Staff on
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Mr. Stasen’s letter is so inaccurate it’s breath-taking. Health insurance rates have no link to “frivolous” lawsuits. Florida does not have “some of the highest payouts” for medical malpractice in the country. Florida now has very few medical malpractice lawyers. Doctors have successfully lobbied away the rights of the people to sue for medical errors. Try even finding a med-mal lawyer. If you find one, try getting them to take your case. You cannot find a lawyer to sue for most medical errors, which are now a leading cause of US deaths. When doctors have this level of protection, the incentive to do the work correctly disappears. Doctors make a stunning number of serious errors, but their legal protections mean you simply suffer. Doctors for years have gotten laws passed creating obstacles to suing them, even laws cutting lawyer fees so that no lawyer would take your case. Doctors are killing you, but you’re too foolish to see it. Pharmaceutical companies are destroying the country and our healthcare system. Blame the few med-mal lawyers left? How stupid are you?
Why don’t we look at why people are unhealthy.
The real problem isn’t money it’s diet.
No junk food
Few grains
Eat a proper human diet.
We have sick care not health care