Greedy Trial Lawyer
Are We At The Promised Land Of Reduced Medical Malpractice Premiums Yet?
Category: Seeing Clearly Now
The main justification for tort reform in medical malpractice matters was to reduce the cost of medical malpractice insurance so medical providers (mostly doctors) would not be driven into poverty, forced to eat cheaper steaks and take shorter ski vacations. Well, the promised benefits for the docs are not materializing. Those rates, they keep on arising. Raise your hand if this surprises you.
The latest article reporting on those pesky rising premiums:
Presently, 34 states have laws in place that specifically limit punitive damages. Some of those states as well as others (for a total of 28 states) have laws that restrict non-economic damages generally.The Iowa Trial Lawyer's Association has the issue headlining their website, citing a GAO/Congressional Budget Office report which notes that this type of tort reform will provide medical doctors little relief from high premiums.
In Texas, which passed major tort reform initiatives in 2003, results have been slow in coming.
Nearly a year after voters approved Proposition 12, the constitutional amendment enabling tort reform, only one major malpractice carrier had reduced rates, while others still tried to increase rates. At the time, the Texas Commissioner of Insurance said about 60 percent of Texas's doctors hadn't seen any decrease in medical malpractice premiums, the Houston Chronicle reported.
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» Medical Malpractice Premiums Reduced!!! Kidding. Kidding. from Miami Personal Injury Lawyer
I'm really enjoying the posts of Greedy Trial Lawyer. He/She appears to be an anonymous colleague who has tongue-in-cheekly (is that a word?) embraced the way proponents of tort reform view him/her.... [Read More]
Tracked on February 21, 2006 08:41 AM