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Don Paul
Social climber
Denver CO
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May 19, 2018 - 03:19pm PT
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Jon I agree it sounds like a weak case. It's probably in the "slip and fall" category of negligence claims in the OR Tort Claims Act where you can be sued for ice on your porch. However Oregon has a modified comparative negligence rule so if climber was more negligent he collects nothing. Someone said he was soloing? That sounds very negligent.
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
From Panorama City, CA
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May 19, 2018 - 06:00pm PT
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Climbing sure was dangerous before cell phones came along. We had the whole wild world in our hands, we had the whole wild world in our hands........
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yanqui
climber
Balcarce, Argentina
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May 21, 2018 - 04:20am PT
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Privatize rescue? Look at our medical system to see how well that worked out.
Now that it looks like this thread is dead, I thought I'd go way off topic and respond to this. I don't have a clue if my off the cuff "privatization" remark is a good idea or a bad idea, but it ain't gonna be implemented, so it's pointless to go on about.
However, I wanted to mention that the US medical system was never "privatized". There are very few countries (Venezuela, North Korea and Cuba come to mind) where all healthcare workers, like police and firemen, are government employees. Health care in most countries today (even Norway and Sweden) is a mix of private service, public service and government subsidies. The main difference is the role government subsidies and private insurance play.
Take Canada, for example. The main difference between the Canadian healthcare system and the US healthcare system is the way medicine is subsidized by the government, not that one is "socialized" and the other is "privatized".
Canada has a publicly funded health care system, but the vast majority of doctors do not work for the government. A patient is free to choose which doctor they wish to visit, and they are entitled to essential physician health services without charge. Doctors are self-employed, which means they can determine their own hours and work location, and they are responsible for paying their employees, for office space and other overhead expenses. Doctors earn money by billing their provincial government for the services they provide to patients.
The Canadian health system is often referred to as "socialized" medicine, but it is actually a mix of private providers billing governments for publicly funded services.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/five-things-canadians-get-wrong-about-the-health-system/article20360452/
At any rate, I think most people would agree that US medical care is pretty good, if you have the money. It's just that the way the government subsidized medicine (primarily through Medicare and Medicaid) and the role of private insurance, has tended to drive up costs higher than other countries and make basic healthcare inaccessible to a large mass of poorer people.
All that aside, my own belief is that access to basic health care should be a right in a country as wealthy as the US. I'm much less convinced that rapid and expensive rescues for mountain climbers should be a fundamental right.
Cheers!
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Fat Dad
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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May 21, 2018 - 10:35am PT
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But should taxpayers subsidize foolishness or ineptitude? They (we) already do. I forget the number, but climber rescues are just a small fraction of S&R resources. I don't think anyone would ever argue that lost hikers/campers, etc., should not be rescued, regardless or his or her ineptitude, let alone pay for it.
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