Medical malpractice insurance

[avram]

Make Them Accountable quotes a number of articles, debunking the myth that the rising cost of insurance is due to high jury awards.

The Michigan Trial Lawyers Association with lots of useful tidbits.

Public Citizen’s Medical Malpractice section.

St. Petersburg Times article on insurance industry lobbyists in Florida changing their stories after the state senate has them testify under oath.

Managed Care Magazine article by John Carroll.

Article from Hamstead Williams & Shook Pllc Law Offices.



Some facts from the Michigan Trial Lawyers Assoc. page:

The top 16 publicly traded health insurers saw their net income increase 75% in 2001-2002.

The National Center For State Courts did a survey of medical malpractice filings in 14 states that keep such records and found that rates are flat. They are not increasing.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners found that new medical malpractice claims dropped about 4% between 1995 and the last year of the comparison, 2000.

In California, the first state to cap the rights of victims, medical malpractice premiums increased by 190% during the 12 years after those limits were imposed. It was not until voters approved Proposition 103 — limiting insurance companies' ability to randomly raise premiums — that rates began to level off.

In Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Nevada, and other states where doctors have staged walk-outs and other publicity stunts while threatening to flee the state, independent investigations have in every case discovered that the actual number of doctors in the state had been rising. The doctors interviewed for the high-profile “fleeing doctors” stories planted by the insurance industry inevitably turned out to be non-existent or moving due to retirement or other reasons.

From Public Citizen fact sheet, quoting a Weiss Ratings, Inc. report from 2 June 2003:

Physicians continued to suffer a rapid increase in med mal premiums despite caps: In 19 states that implemented caps during the 12-year period, physicians suffered a 48.2 percent jump in median premiums, from $20,414 in 1991 to $30,246 in 2002. However, surprisingly, in 32 states without caps, the pace of increase was actually somewhat slower, as premiums rose by only 35.9 percent, from $22,118 to $30,056.

At the same time, among the 19 states with caps, only two of the states, or 10.5 percent, experienced flat or declining med mal premiums. In contrast, states without caps were actually better able to contain premium rate increases, with six, or 18.7 percent, experiencing stable or declining trends.

From the Jon Carroll article:

The scenario Hunter paints is reminiscent of what health plans experienced during the 1990s: Insurance companies keep rates artificially low for years just to win market share. As long as interest rates are high, that money can earn a hefty profit long before claims are paid out. Meanwhile, underlying inflation erodes the price structure. With medical liability insurance, the fuse can run out six to eight years after an insurer starts selling liability policies.

Finally, a point is reached when interest rates collapse and insurance companies have to hike rates suddenly to stop hemorrhaging money in payouts. Big companies find it much more convenient to blame lawyers and rogue juries than to admit they “screwed up,” says Hunter.

From HW&S (page 2 of 5):

But empirical studies show that there is no connection between where physicians practice, liability laws and insurance rates. In West Virginia, for instance, in spite of an alleged crisis, the number of physicians practicing in the state has actually increased at a greater rate than the population has increased. Further, according to the American Medical Association, the number of physicians per one hundred thousand residents is greater in states without caps compared to states with caps.

Comments

[bigscary.livejournal.com]

Again, and again, and again:
Insurance Premiums depend less upon actual probablistic concerns, and more upon the state of the underwriter's portfolio.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

Um, could you translate for those of us whose eyes glaze over at this technical stuff and who can't figure out who's doing what to whom?

[avram]

Insurance companies are trying to get legislators (state and federal) to place limits (caps) on the size of awards that juries can grant to people suing over malpractice. They’re claiming that malpractice awards are causing insurance rates to rise, which causes doctors to go out of business. They are lying.