What's Good About Medical Malpractice

I have argued here before that we should never agree to "malpractice reform" until the medical profession comes up with a way to police itself and remove incompetents from its ranks. Thus, the case against said "reform" has gotten a lot stronger in the wake of a recent criminal prosecution in Texas. In Kermit, TX, Anne Mitchell is charged with a third degree felony for blowing the whistle on a doctor she believed to be incompetent who was practicing at the local hospital where she is a nurse supervisor. Ms. Mitchell sent an anonymous letter to the State Medical Board suggesting a review of five cases where she believed the doctor, Rolando Arafiles, Jr., had engaged in "a pattern of improper prescribing and surgical procedures," according to the New York Times. She has lost her job, cannot get another, and faces prison and fines. As I have pointed out earlier, the medical profession does not adequately protect the general public from medical incompetence, and prefers to shield its members from outside criticism. This leaves malpractice as the only realistic tool for policing the medical profession. Now we have the full force of the state's prosecutorial apparatus brought to bear on a woman who believed it was her duty to inform the medical board. "We are just in disbelief that you could be arrested for doing something that you had been told your whole life you were obligated to do," Ms. Mitchell said. That might be true in a rational universe, but there is nothing about the medical profession's obsession with self protection that is rational. I say we better hang onto that medical malpractice practice a while longer.