Medical malpractice liability caps for pain and suffering-- have the caps

[Ilsa]

helped more doctors afford their insurance and stay in practice? Has it affected access to healthcare? I read somewhere that it reduced doctor's malpractice insurance in Texas by 21%, but I wonder if the insurance companies are going to jack the rates up again because of last year's investment losses.

We've had a cap in Texas since 2003. What have you heard or read?

[grantcart]

1. The cost of malpractice insurance and payments accounts for less than 1%

of the total cost of health care.

There are two areas of exception OBGYN and Neurosurgery.

There seems to be substantive evidence that malpractice for doctors that deliver babies has been abused as parents are encouraged to sue everytime there is a birth defect or other problem.

When you see high increases or high premiums (i.e. over $ 100,000 per year for a doctor) it is almost certainly speaking about OBGYN.

I would support tort reform that would protect OBGYN doctors that follow accepted protocal.

[Hoyt]

2. I think it might have held some rates stable.

From a moral standpoint, I'm not much on the caps; but, as a practical matter, they are probably necessary.

But, for the vast majority of physicians, malpractice rates while significant, are not that often a determinant of whether a practice survives financially. I'll bet most physician's pay less than 4 to 5% of their practice's receipts on such liability insurance. That's not insignificant, but not something that cannot be offset. I think the threat of going through a malpractice suit is more of a factor. It's tough on good docs especially. That is not to say that patients don't have a tough time too. I'd like to see us explore some reasonable alternatives to assigning compensation, medical payments, etc., to those injured. I think provisions in the proposals for health care reform can help us head that way.

But, who knows -- it's a complicated issue.

[Gabi Hayes]

3. one side of the story......leaning toward assertion made in post #1 here:

iin which it would seem, surprise, surprise, that the corporatists are trying to hide the real causes of skyrocketing medical costs the same way they're trying to scare people away from meaningful health care reform

.................

Medical Malpractice Crisis? Tort Reform? Just The Facts, Please. Medical Malpractice Crisis? Tort Reform? Just The Facts, Please. ... some of which appear to be unrelated to medical malpractice litigation. ...
www.martinandjones.com/medical-malpractice-crisis - Cached - Similar

Medical malpractice - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This approach has been criticized for treating medical malpractice differently from other areas of tort law and for depriving Americans of their seventh ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_malpractice - Cached - Similar

GAO-04-128T Medical Malpractice Insurance: Multiple Factors Have ... File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View
states with and without certain medical malpractice tort limitations, the ... unrelated to tort reform, such as premium rate regulations, vary widely ...
www.gao.gov/new.items/d04128t.pdf - Similar

Corp Reform - Not Tort Reform: Medical Malpractice Technorati tags: tort reform, Texas, medical malpractice, damage caps, ... Or could it be that other factors, unrelated to the tort system but blamed on it ...
corpreform.typepad.com/corpreform/medical_malpractice/ - Cached - Similar

No Need for Tort Reform in Medical Malpractice Cases | InjuryBoard ... No Need for Tort Reform in Medical Malpractice Cases ... malpractice settlements are an irrational lottery where fault and settlement are unrelated...the ...
roanoke.injuryboard.com/medical-malpractice/no-need-for-tort-reform-in-medical-malpractice-cases.aspx?... - Cached - Similar

Public: BOG Adopts Tort Reform Task Force Report, Memorandum The increases in policy premiums are due to a number of factors, some of which appear unrelated to medical malpractice litigation. ...
www.ncbar.org/ncLawyer/10/627/index.aspx?type...true - Cached - Similar

FAQs - Personal Injury and Malpractice Claims - Tort, Injury ... FAQ Frequently Asked Questions - Personal Injury and Malpractice Claims - Tort, Injury, Negligence, Punitive Damages, Medical Bills, Accident, ...
www.danbrady.com/faqs_pi.html - Cached - Similar

Medical Malpractice | Washington State Office of the Insurance ... We've just experienced the third medical malpractice insurance crisis since the 1970s. ... due to economic conditions that are unrelated to the tort system. ...
www.insurance.wa.gov/legislative/.../medical_malpractice.shtml - Cached - Similar

Technical Report: Alternative Dispute Resolution in Medical ... May 1, 2006 ... a crisis of availability of medical malpractice insurance. ... patient's motivation to sue a physician for malpractice often rests in factors unrelated to ..... motor vehicle claims, and medical malpractice tort claims. ...
aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics;107/3/602 - Similar
by JJ Fraser Jr - 2001 - Cited by 6 - Related articles - All 6 versions

An Empirical Study of the Impact of Tort Reforms on Medical ... medical malpractice tort reform (Diamond, Saks, and Landsman 1998; ...... seem to be unrelated to the level of actual awards in the data set. ...
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.../SSRN_ID912922_code254274.pdf?... - Similar
by R Avraham - Related articles - All 5 versions

[TexasObserver]

4. All caps have done is make insurance more profitable.

The whole "malpractice claims are killing medicine" meme is bullshit and always has been.

In the 1990s, the Texas Medical Association had a study made, and it showed that malpractice claims had a negligible effect upon the cost of medicine. As with most rightwing memes, they use the big lie to get the public to believe a certain theme.

[johnaries]

5. Last I heard, the insurance companies in TX just kept the money. nt