Rising doctors' premiums not due to lawsuit awards

[dogday]

http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/other/articles/2005/06/01/rising_doctors_premiums_not_due_to_lawsuit_awards/

Study suggests insurers raise rates to make up for investment declines
By Liz Kowalczyk, Globe Staff | June 1, 2005

Re-igniting the medical malpractice overhaul debate, a new study by Dartmouth College researchers suggests that huge jury awards and financial settlements for injured patients have not caused the explosive increase in doctors' insurance premiums.

The researchers said a more likely explanation for the escalation is that malpractice insurance companies have raised doctors' premiums to compensate for falling investment returns.

The Dartmouth economists studied actual payments made to patients between 1991 and 2003, the results of which were published yesterday in the journal Health Affairs. Some previous studies have examined jury awards, which often are reduced after trial to comply with doctors' insurance coverage maximums or because the plaintiff settles for less money to avoid an appeal. Researchers found that payments grew an average of 4 percent annually during the years covered by the study, or 52 percent overall since 1991, but only 1.6 percent a year since 2000. The increases are roughly equivalent to the overall rise in healthcare costs, said Amitabh Chandra, lead author and an assistant professor of economics at the New Hampshire college.

Didn't George Bush Say Premiums were going up because of Lawsuits?

[merh]

1. psst, psst

the blivet* lies! :freak:

[Warpy]

2. I've said this for YEARS

5% of doctors are responsible for 50% of malpractice payouts. Few suits go to trial. Of those that do, many are thrown out. The insurance companies are jacking up premiums on the backs of doctors and the sick people they treat because the stock market is no longer giving them the returns they got used to in the 90s. This is pure fucking corporate GREED, and another reason nothing to do with health care belongs in the for profit, corporate sector!

The pugs are LYING SHITHEADS who want to protect their fattest campaign contributors, the drug companies, from lawsuits by the people they hurt through keeping adequate information about drug side effects hidden. It's also to protect all fatcat corporations from liability lawsuits for lousy products they lied about and continued to sell and hurt people with.

[Hotler]

3. Damn straight! It's all about greed and nothing else. n/t