Re: Malpractice Insurance- New Data Confirms That Doctors Were Price-Gouged
From: art fougner, md (evsono@pipeline.com)
Fri Mar 30 06:48:50 2007
The study quoted states that insurance carrier reserves have grown ...
that is certainly NOT the case in NY State. MLMIC, the state's largest
malpractice carrier's reserves have steadily declined from 1.5 billion
to 200 million over the last five yr period. Barring legislative
relief, unlikely in a state in which one powerful legislative leader is
a member of a law firm specializing in asbestos litigation, the
carrier's death spiral should eventuate in bankruptcy before the end of
the decade.
"There are three types of lies - lies, damned lies, and statistics."
Variously attributed to Benjamin Disraeli, Mark Twain and others.
Art
At Fri, 30 Mar 2007, GIN11153@aol.com wrote:
>
>New Data Confirms That Doctors Were Price-Gouged By the Insurance Industry
>During this Decade
>
>NEW YORK -Americans for Insurance Reform (AIR) announced today the release
>of Stable Losses/Unstable Rates 2007, a new study that examines fresh
>insurance industry data to determine what caused the most recent medical
>malpractice insurance crisis for doctors. The study by AIR, a coalition of
>over 100 consumer and public interest groups representing more than 50
>million people, finds that the insurance crisis that hit doctors between
>2001 and 2004 was not caused by claims, payouts or legal system excesses as
>the insurance industry claimed. Rather, according to the industry's own
>data:
>
>se
>between 2001 and 2004, a time when doctors' premiums skyrocketed, but they
>have been stable or falling throughout this entire decade.
>
>· Medical malpractice insurance premiums rose much faster in the
>early years of this decade than was justified by insurance payouts.
>
>· At no time were recent increases in premiums connected to actual
>a
>"hard" market. Property/casualty insurance industry "hard" markets have
>occurred three times in the past 30 years.
>
>· During this same period, medical malpractice insurers vastly (and
>unnecessarily) increased reserves (used for future claims) despite no
>increase in payouts or any trend suggesting large future payouts. The
>reserve increases in the years 2001 to 2004 could have accounted for 60
>percent of the price increases witnessed by doctors during the period.
>
>Study author J. Robert Hunter, Director of Insurance for the
>Consumer Federation of America, former Federal Insurance Administrator and
>Texas Insurance Commissioner, said: "This report is proof positive that the
>r
>e not related to a jump in claims. Rather, as in the mid-1970s and
>mid-1980s, they were simply the result of insurance industry economics,
>supplemented by insurer hype intended to divert attention away from the
>mismanagement by insurers that caused the crisis."
>
>Co-author Joanne Doroshow, Executive Director of the Center for
>Justice & Democracy, said,"This report shows that the real reasons medical
>malpractice insurance rates rose so dramatically for doctors during this
>decade was market forces and dropping interest rates, not because of a
>sudden increase in medical malpractice jury awards or payouts. These
>s
>to reform the insurance industry. State lawmakers must strengthen state
>insurance regulatory laws and Congress must repeal the decades-old McCarran
>Ferguson Act, which exempts the insurance industry from anti-trust laws."
>
>The full study can be found at: http://insurance-reform.org
>
>..
--
art fougner, md
"May The Wings of Liberty Never Lose a Feather." - Jack Burton
