Read the rest of the Placebo Gazette here:

PLACEBO GAZETTE

Hoax?

One of my readers here at the Placebo Gazette pointed out an article to me from a group called Public Citizen. I have known about this organization for quite awhile and I'm not their biggest fan. I think they are very extreme in their methods in which they criticize the government, the president and the pharmaceutical industry. I know that sounds weird coming from me but I think they push the envelope more than they need to. Their latest endeavor is calling the medical malpractice crisis a "hoax".

The article is very long and I'm going to leave the link here for you to read. I'm very curious on your thoughts. Here is the piece in its entirety:

http://www.citizen.org/publications/release.cfm?ID=7497&secID=1720&catID=126

A couple concerns I have right off the bat is that my hunch is Public Citizen is anti-physician. While I agree that there are a very small minority of physicians that cause a lot of malpractice claims it does not prove to me there isn’t a malpractice insurance crisis. The group seems to want to nail every physician may can for any mistake that happens. I have read too many personal e-mails to me explaining the travesty of our court systems and what it does to physicians to take this article by Public Citizen seriously. If you read other mainstream medical journals such as Medical Economics you will find personal stories that are horrifying. Doctors have been sued many times for no reason at all in shotgun style lawsuits; all of which had driven these doctors to quit the profession or to lose their ability to care. To me, this is the worst outcome that has happened over the medical liability issue. I await your thoughts.