Frankie-C!
05-03-2007, 02:25 PM
In Australia at least, the government requires that medical practioners of any denomination take out insurance cover against indemnity. Now this wouldn't be such a bad idea, if doctors weren't being forced to fork our ridiculous amounts of cash for this kind of cover. For instance, a radiologist (someone who looks at x-rays), at the lower end of the spectrum, is paying at minumum about $3000 a fortnight in indemnity insurance, which in the long term is probably more than they would ever have to compensate a patient for should they happen to sue - and it is very difficult for a radiologist to make a mistake - their cases are literally black and white.
Now this occurs for two reasons:
1) We're starting to adopt the American way of suing innocent people for stupid amounts of cash for arbitrary reasons and
2) Insurance companies are run to benefit share holders - as are banks.
With absolutely no industry regulation, these pigs have basically been given a free license to print money. And it's not just doctors that are affected by this, for instance the gay and lesbian mardi gras - perhaps sydney's largest tourist attraction - has almost been forced to shut down for the last several years due to the incredible insurance rates they have to pay to protect themselves against liabilty. Other instances I can think of are horse-riding trainers and cable-car operators who've been forced to shut down completely because of unaffordable insurance premiums.
On top of this, we're told in Australia that our economy is performing better than it ever has before. Meanwhile interests rates here are among the highest in the developed world. Now how the **** a healthy economy benefits the majority of the population who now can't afford to buy a home ever is one issue - why the **** they need to raise interest rates when our banks are posting record profits year after year is another.
The motivation behind this I gather is the benefit of the shareholders; people who already have money and are looking to become fatter. But then isn't the idea behind a bank or an insurance company is that they take the money you've given them and to invest it in other shares?
The answer, perhaps i may be naive in saying so, would be privatisation. If these corporations were run only to benefit customers, then surely the whole of our society would be better off for it. But then I know nothing of economics. Can somebody please explain to me how the overall profit of a company and it's dividends outweighs the benefits that the general community might gain from a privately run company?
Now this occurs for two reasons:
1) We're starting to adopt the American way of suing innocent people for stupid amounts of cash for arbitrary reasons and
2) Insurance companies are run to benefit share holders - as are banks.
With absolutely no industry regulation, these pigs have basically been given a free license to print money. And it's not just doctors that are affected by this, for instance the gay and lesbian mardi gras - perhaps sydney's largest tourist attraction - has almost been forced to shut down for the last several years due to the incredible insurance rates they have to pay to protect themselves against liabilty. Other instances I can think of are horse-riding trainers and cable-car operators who've been forced to shut down completely because of unaffordable insurance premiums.
On top of this, we're told in Australia that our economy is performing better than it ever has before. Meanwhile interests rates here are among the highest in the developed world. Now how the **** a healthy economy benefits the majority of the population who now can't afford to buy a home ever is one issue - why the **** they need to raise interest rates when our banks are posting record profits year after year is another.
The motivation behind this I gather is the benefit of the shareholders; people who already have money and are looking to become fatter. But then isn't the idea behind a bank or an insurance company is that they take the money you've given them and to invest it in other shares?
The answer, perhaps i may be naive in saying so, would be privatisation. If these corporations were run only to benefit customers, then surely the whole of our society would be better off for it. But then I know nothing of economics. Can somebody please explain to me how the overall profit of a company and it's dividends outweighs the benefits that the general community might gain from a privately run company?