Behind Those Medical Malpractice Rates -NYT

[Rose Siding]

Speaking before hundreds of doctors and medical workers in a St. Louis suburb last month, President Bush called attention to a neurosurgeon on stage with him in the small auditorium. The doctor, the president said, was paying $265,000 a year in premiums for insurance against malpractice claims.
...
But for all the worry over higher medical expenses, legal costs do not seem to be at the root of the recent increase in malpractice insurance premiums. Government and industry data show only a modest rise in malpractice claims over the last decade. And last year, the trend in payments for malpractice claims against doctors and other medical professionals turned sharply downward, falling 8.9 percent, to a nationwide total of $4.6 billion, according to data compiled by the Health and Human Services Department.

"There is an underlying cost push," said J. Robert Hunter, the director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America, who is a former insurance regulator in Texas. "But there has not been an explosion of big jury verdicts or settlements. It's a constant drip, drip every year."

Lawsuits against doctors are just one of several factors that have driven up the cost of malpractice insurance, specialists say. Lately, the more important factors appear to be the declining investment earnings of insurance companies and the changing nature of competition in the industry...........

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/22/business/22insure.html?

[whistle]

1. It's the medical practitioners insurance company industrial ...

....complex conspiracy.

[stevebreeze]

2. The largest portion by far of lawsuit claim dollars is for health care

We should eliminate the need for health care coverage in malpractice awards by passing universal health care. Now there's an idea the Right will hate.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. So, it is insurance companies that are REALLY behind the rising

cost of malpractice insurance, not lawyers, or too many malpractice suits. I think that Mike Papantonio and RFK jr. had a show about this months ago.

[havocmom]

5. It's the stock market! When it does not preform well, insurance companies

raise rates. They take the premium $$ and invest it in the market. Market not doing well = not enough profit = raise the rates and lie about it to the policy holders.

Back in the late 70s and 80s when the market did not do well, insurance rates rose very fast and way beyond inflation AND jury awards.

IT'S THE STOCK MARKET NOT DOING WELL! That'd be the SAME stock market the junta wants to siphon off payroll taxes for SS to prop up.

[KT2000]

8. exactly

people really need to understand this

Who had insurance rate increases this year?? I would best most everyone.
reduction in coverage? increased deductibles? AND the rate increase.

[cthrumatrix]

17. it's all about more money for the insurance comp. - less exposure

[Coastie for Truth]

4. I have been saying that for years.

The increase in malpractice insurance rates is not due to claim experience -- but due to investment portfolio losses.

The business model of the insurance industry is to take your money -- and then make you sue them to get it back when a "covered event" occurs.

[struggle4progress]

6. kick

[alcuno]

7. I'm sure that now that they have reformed where class action lawsuits

can be filed, insurance rates will quickly go down.

[havocmom]

9. *snarf* Good one! Thanks, I needed a laugh

Yes, the insurance industry is SOOOO honest and fair.

[Coastie for Truth]

21. Just like the Boobingrabbers Workers Comp Reform in California

==> rates barely went down --- but rehabilitation is harder to get, and most doc won't accept California Workers' Comp payment any more.

[LynnTheDem]

10. As everyone SHOULD KNOW by now, it is NOT the malpractice cases,

it's the INSURANCE corporations, who are increasing malpractice insurance even though actual malpractice cases ahve held steady or declined.

Exactly as Kerry & Edwards pointed out many times.

But bush wants to HELP the big insurance companies. So instead of capping the insurance, he wants to do his usual; screw We the People and cap malpractice awards.

Ain't it funny that all the states that already have malpractice awards caps have the HIGHEST MALPRACTICE INSURANCE COSTS.

Ya just can't get any dumber than a rightwingnut...or anyone who believes anything a rightwingnut says.

[Straight Shooter]

11. "... declining investment earnings of insurance companies ..."

Like any of bush's corporate cronies, they reach into the pockets of the consumers, their captive audience, and take what they can get. Then they reach in and take a little more.

Insurance, in many ways, is a scam. At best it's a necessary evil, but it's an evil nevertheless.

[wellst0nev0ter]

12. How Many Times Must The Doctors Get Hit Over The Head

Before they realize who's holding the bat? Malpractice awards had been limited in California, Texas and Florida, and in all three places malpractice insurance STILL skyrocketed.

California is a special place since malpractice insurance rates finally stabilized when they forced the leeches to open their books after ten years of their fleecing.

[Doremus]

13. I love California. :)

In so many ways it's an example for us all to aspire to.

Thank you Californians for your progressiveness. Please don't let that stupid womanizing actor playing governor ruin a shining state that gives so many of us hope.

[Coastie for Truth]

22. Look at our Earthquake Insurance

After Loma Prieta and Northridge - the insurance companies ran to Sacramento for a bail out.

[Charon]

14. Limits

Believe they are limited to $1,000,000 in Virginia

[underpants]

15. A fantastic resource on this issue

http://www.insurance-reform.org/

[Jose Diablo]

16. Why is it that in every major city

the largest, fanciest buildings are owned by the insurance companies? These companies are like crooks that sell 'glass breakage insurance' to small stores. Don't buy the 'insurance', well your window will get broken . They don't have to break the glass themselves though, it just happens and if you are not 'covered', well it's adios muchacho. The lawyers make sure of that.

There is a twist to it though, they use legal means to extract money from everyone and every business. You want to find one of the biggest reasons labor is so expensive here, imagine the embedded cost of just living that is ending up in a insurance company pocket. Housing, food, transportation, health they are plugged into everything.

Just making a guess, but I would say about 25% of every dollar spent ends up going to some insurance company or another.

[Jeff in Cincinnati]

18. The simple explanation...

This is a complicated subject, but use this explanation on your friends, neighbors, and co-workers:

1. Insurance premiums don't pay the costs of medical malpractice lawsuits; those costs are paid from the insurance companies' earnings on their investments.

2. Like everybody else, insurance companies have seen their revenues from Wall Street drop dramatically in recent years, so they've raised insurance rates to pick up the slack.

3. This has nothing at all to do with the number or the size of medical malpractice lawsuits. But it has everything to do with the insurance industry trying to take away your right to your day in court.

4. If you believe in the basic American principle of trial by jury, then you should be opposed to this kind of "reform."

[gratuitous]

19. And as usual, the Times buries the lede

It isn't until paragraph 6 that the corker gets revealed, and even then they can't help themselves and use weasel words: "Lately the more important factors appear to be the declining investment earnings of insurance companies and the changing nature of competition in the industry."

Darn that librul media!

[Supersedeas]

20. another false dichotomy-or a cure that doesn't fix the cause: see a trend?

Privatization has no impact on Social Security's funding issue.

Tort reform has no impact on MedMal premiums.

So, WHERE'S the leadership???