Sunday, January 26, 2003

Breaking free The City of Houston has said "thanks but no thanks" to Microsoft's Orwellian-named "Software Assurance Plan" and has chosen a low-cost ASP called SimDesk instead.  (Source: USA Today.  See also "Houston, We Have a Problem with Office" at C|Net's News.com.)  Given the fact that internet connections don't always connect, using an ASP instead of locally-installed software may be a little chancy.  More corporate and governmental users will opt for Corel's WordPerfect Office suite, which has a normal pricing structure, or for the low-cost alternatives like StarOffice or its free, open-source cousin,  OpenOffice.   With Microsoft pushing its good customers away with its ridiculous pricing scheme, more and more of them are realizing that they do not have to be shackled to the Redmond behemoth.  3:32:17 PM     The costs of practicing medicine The News and Observer reports: Nearly one in five Georgia doctors are abandoning high-risk medical procedures, including delivering babies, and hundreds more are leaving the state or retiring because of high medical malpractice insurance rates, according to a study released Saturday. "Medical liability insurance is a serious problem in Georgia," said Bruce Deighton, executive director of the Georgia Board for Physician Workforce, which released the study. "We're not saying we have an answer to correct that, but it does have an impact on the physician supply in Georgia and it does reduce access to medical care in Georgia." *     *     * The 2002 rates reported by the doctors surveyed ranged from just under $8,000 a year for psychiatry to more than $60,000 for neurosurgery. Obstetricians reported paying nearly $50,000. The article does not say how much protection that premium will purchase, and that makes a big difference.  At the worst point here in Michigan, in the late 1980s, some obstetricians were paying up to $90,000 per year for professional liability coverage with per-occurrence limits of only $200,000.  That is an intolerable burden.  A premium of $50,000 for $1 million per-occurrence coverage, by contrast, is high but not onerous for a high-risk specialty field. 12:55:38 PM     Another fresh face Thanks to Joanne Jacobs, who points out Dave Barry's new web log, apparently created with an assist from Ken Layne.  This will introduce Dave to the millions of web log readers who have no idea who he is. 9:38:22 AM     Medical malpractice and the Federal interest Ramesh Ponnuru of National Review Online makes the same point that we did last year, soon after we began this project (See "Federalism - When it's Convenient"):  Tort reform in medical malpractice litigation is a matter that is properly left to be determined by the states.  Unlike product liability litigation, the Federal government has no legitimate interest in getting involved in the medical malpractice crisis. Ponnuru notes: Medical-liability reform is not like product-liability reform. The whole country suffers if Alabama lets trial lawyers go crazy in product-liability cases. If a company sells its product there, the state can effectively make law for the rest of the country. He rejects the idea that Federal funding of Medicaid and Medicare justifies Federal intervention: The federal government took it upon itself to offer Medicare and Medicaid benefits; nobody forced it. If it wants to save itself money, it can in theory end those programs. In theory, the feds could also reduce payments to states with foolish tort systems. What Bush is saying is that federal intervention in some field justifies further federal intervention to deal with anything that might affect its programs. So, for example, the federal government would be justified in banning smoking if that were shown to cost veterans' health programs money. Federal Malpractice - Let the states sort out the medical-malpractice mess -- National Review Online, January 24, 2003 7:41:56 AM

© Copyright 2003 Franco Castalone. Last update: 2/4/2003; 6:17:49 PM.