Posted On: February 23, 2006, 6:51 pm CST

Posted By: Mike End

The position taken by ATRA is ridiculous. In each of the last three years, only four people have won medical malpractice cases in the entire state. The National Practitioner Data Bank shows that, on average, fewer than 100 Wisconsin people per year have recovered compensation for injuries suffered as a result of medical malpractice since the reporting began in 1990. The medical malpractice insurance rates in Wisconsin are the fifth-lowest in the country. The per capita number of payments is the second-lowest in the country. No doctor in Wisconsin ever has to pay a penny to a claimant, since it is all covered by insurance and the Injured Patients and Families Compensation Fund. In thirty years, there have only been three payments of more than $10 million. The Fund currently has $758 million, much more than it has paid, in total, to injured patients in its thirty years of existence. Minnesota has never had a cap on damages in medical malpractice cases and has the lowest insurance rates in the country. Anyone who knows the facts will realize the ridiculousness of ATRA's claims. Nothing in Wisconsin is going to change because of the Wisconsin Supreme Court decision, other than the few most severely injured people may actually recover fair compensation.