what the repukes aren't telling you is that malpractice insurance comp.

[NVMojo]

like St. ****'s lost a frigging ton of money investing their insurance users (physicians) plans in Enron ...and other screwed up investment schemes.

snip....

"And they lost hundreds of millions in the stocks of crooked companies such as Enron and WorldCom. Insurers weren't the only ones to get hurt in the market. But unlike the rest of us, insurers can dig into consumers' pockets, raising premiums to cover their losses. That's why industry profits soared by $11.9 billion in the first three quarters of 2002.

What about the huge losses that insurers insist are forcing them rate increases? They're as phony as Enron's bookkeeping. Industry accounting practices permit insurers to write-off their claims payments -- including projections of future claims -- as losses for tax and regulatory purposes. Insurers therefore routinely inflate their projections of claims payments to make it look as if losses have soared. In previous crises, a huge portion of these phantom losses never materialized. Insurers then quietly book the "losses" as profits. Examination of their financial statements reveals the extent of the scam: from 1996 through 2001, insurers nationwide paid out an average of only sixty-nine cents in claims for every malpractice premium dollar they took in.

Lost in the debate over malpractice premiums is the true crisis: the epidemic of medical malpractice that kills over 160,000 American each year, according to the author of a landmark study by the Harvard School of Public Health. MICRA has made it impossible for many malpractice victims in California to hire a lawyer. Its cap -- now worth $68,000 in 1975 dollars -- has left many of the injured and next of kin without adequate resources. Finally, MICRA has undermined the powerful incentive for quality care provided by the threat of a lawsuit, protection that patients need in the era of profit-driven HMO care. That's why California consumers are calling for MICRA's repeal, even as President Bush has joined striking doctors and the insurance industry in support of a federal MICRA law.
-----------
Bio: Harvey Rosenfield is the President of the California-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights and the author of Proposition 103. Web: www.consumerwatchdog.org

snip...

http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/healthcare/nw/nw003146.php3



back to top

[RaleighNCDUer]

1. The whole insurance thing is ass-backwards.

Instead of good doctors being forced out of business by insurance costs, the insurance companies should be refusing to insure doctors who have a bad malpractice record. By not covering the bad ones, the doctors who remain will be low risk, and can get lower premiums. A simple solution.

The problem is with the INSURANCE INDUSTRY!!! Not the patients, not the doctors, not the lawyers.

Why can't people figure that our??

[NVMojo]

2. they get it but it's about money. I've spent a few years working for Docs

and the ones I worked for thought the world owed them a high lifestyle most of the time. They were actually more pissed off at insurance companies and managed care companies who work to save employers money on their employee benefit plans....

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

3. Thanks.

A perfect post for the website I admin. So posted.