Medmal tort reform for the educated

[BaliBabyDoc]

WA grapples with Tort

"Further, the catastrophic losses paid out by the industry after the Sept. 11, 2001, tragedy caused a dramatic increase in reinsurance rates, which have had a devastating impact on specialty markets, such as medical malpractice. Even the American Insurance Association admits that lawmakers who enact tort reform should not expect insurance rates to drop."

Proponents of capping non-economic damages argue that if caps have worked in California, they can work here.

But it's not the caps that have worked so well in California. Rather, it's the insurance reforms contained in Proposition 103.

That 1988 voter-approved initiative called for a 20 percent rollback in rates and required insurers to return millions of dollars to their customers. Prop. 103 also gave the insurance commissioner the ability to approve rate increases.

 

[tcsenter]

But it's not the caps that have worked so well in California. Rather, it's the insurance reforms contained in Proposition 103.

That 1988 voter-approved initiative called for a 20 percent rollback in rates and required insurers to return millions of dollars to their customers. Prop. 103 also gave the insurance commissioner the ability to approve rate increases.

Except, it was damage caps which made it possible to rollback rates by 20 percent and return millions of dollars to customers. Without one, the other wouldn't have been feasible.

I do ever so admire the trial lawyer's argument, which goes a little something like this:

"Its not frivolous lawsuits which are driving higher malpractice rates, its bad doctors. How do we know its bad doctors? Why, because we're filing more lawsuits, of course!"

One of the more perfect models of circular reasoning I've ever seen. heh

 

[Keego]

I did a report on tort reform last term.


I forgot everything by the end of spring break. Good thing it's not in my major

 

[ElFenix]

malpractice lawyers are leeches. rarely do they contribute to the actual economic output of the country.

 

[BaliBabyDoc]

I'm a physician and I'm making an argument that ANYONE that focuses on tort reform does not understand the myriad of issues facing healthcare in America. The major reason patients are losing access to physicians is NOT doctors leaving practice due to high rates . . . it is doctors not accepting Medicare and Medicaid patients due to poor reimbursement.

If you ended all medmal tomorrow . . . you would put a scratch (if not a dent) in the total cost of healthcare delivery in America. If you ended the (profit and infrastructure costs) of health insurance providers tomorrow . . . you could provide fee-for-service care to most Americans who currently cannot afford it.

The truth is that our problems with healthcare are not either or propositions. We do NEED tort reform but not nearly as much as we need reform in our systems of healthcare delivery, medical education, and pharmacotherapy.