One major medical malpractice insurer in North Carolina is already crediting the state’s recently passed medical malpractice tort reform – passed over the veto of Gov. Perdue – with a reduction in insurance premiums. According to the N&O’s Under the Dome:
A medical malpractice insurer has lowered its premiums and is crediting what is often called tort reform in this and other states.
Mag Mutual Insurance Co., the second-largest such firm in the state, credits the new laws with almost half of its recent 7.4 percent average cut in insurance premiums for doctors.
The legislature last year overrode Gov. Bev Perdue’s veto of a bill capping “noneconomic” damages at $500,000.
The Civitas Institute advocated for such tort reforms for several years, fortunately legislators were able to provide doctors (and thus patients) with sensible reforms that will ease the financial burden of providing medical care – no thanks to Perdue.
Do those lower malpractice insurance premiums really reflect a savings or only a shifting of the costs of malpractice to the victims, who are no longer being fully compensated, or to the taxpayers who will end up paying for the care of people who no longer are compensated for the costs of malpractice.
A better solution would be to reduce malpractice itself. Over the last 20 years in NC only about 1.26 percent of physicians were responsible for over half of all the money paid out for malpractice. We could save money, not to mention lives and injuries, if hospitals and the licensing board required retraining or restricted or revoked the licenses of the very small proportion of physicians who are causing the bulk of the problem. That would do more good than simply shifting costs to the victims.
Just a comment on Bob’s post re: tort reform. What he fails to realize is that it is often the best physicians who are sued the most because they take the more difficult cases. Also,the high costs of malpractice coverage contributes to defensive medicine which adds many millions of dollars to the cost of medical care.
Finally, in many states there is a partnership between the state medical societies and the insurers whereby they review those held responsible for malpractice and have the ability, and do, rate up such physicians, restrict the abiility of many to perform certain procedures and, in more extreme cases, cancel their insurance. I can tell you from experience that often there are none harder on physicians than their colleagues.
Why don’t you put a cap on how much “DOCTORS” can charge for office visits and tests, people who are a fixed incomes need! I guess you don’t give a Damn about them. It’s really sad that the senate bill 33 cares more about ” money” than you care about the lives of People.Maybe one day the people who passed this bill will be injured Like I was,and can’t do a damn thing about it by your Big hospital and a Lung Surgeon in Greensboro N.C. Oh by the way it’s been a little over two years and still suffering from the damages that I still have!
To Sandi: Do you have 16 years of higher education? How many hours a day do you study? How many weekends and nights you have sacrificed away from your love ones to take care of other people? I am just wondering. What do you do? all we care about is serving others. A little bit of appreciation would be nice.