Posted On: April 23, 2004, 1:34 pm CDT

Posted By: Jim

I would be interested in the percentage of lawsuits filed in either Philadelphia or Pittsburgh. Both areas are ultra-liberal and the venue shopping attorneys will always go to these areas because they're afraid of the conservative non-urban juries. Most people don't realize insurance is a business and is not a social justice mechanism. In a business, if you can't make a profit, you increase your price or leave the business. This deep pocket theory the attorneys, courts and people have is mostly to blame for this problem. The other culprit is the PA Medical Society that doesn't know how to publish the names of physicians who cause the problems. Not all physicians are the cause of the problem, but the ones who are practice with impunity because of the "good ol' boy" system prevelent in the AMA and the PMA. Until this changes, and the offending docs are put out-of-business, the rates will continue to skyrocket, the insurance companies will continue to stop insuring physicians (and hospitals) and the attorneys will continue to get rich.