AAI Urges Congress to Adopt Med-Mal Reforms

January 17, 2003

Rodger Lawson, president of the Alliance of American Insurers, has urged Congress to enact meaningful medical malpractice liability reforms, in order to avert a growing crisis fed, in part, by the growing number and size of malpractice claims.

Lawson called the medical malpractice reform package being introduced this week by President Bush a “solid step forward for the American health care system and the American economy.”

The President’s plan includes many items supported by the Alliance: it would cap recoveries for non-economic damages; it would reserve punitive damages for cases where they are justified; it would provide for payments of judgments over time rather than in a single, lump sum; it would ensure that old cases could not be brought years after an event; it would reduce the amount doctors must pay if a plaintiff has received other payments from an insurer to compensate for their losses; and would provide that defendants pay judgments in proportion to their fault.

“The Alliance of American Insurers supports meaningful medical malpractice reforms, such as the use of caps for non-economic damages and abolition of joint and several liability in all types of litigation as a means to reduce escalating jury awards and settlements,” Lawson said. Reforming the medical malpractice system is critical, because the rising costs of health care are borne by numerous insurance lines: workers compensation, automobile, homeowners, etc. All lines share some of the escalating costs,” Lawson said.

“In order to provide much-needed relief for doctors and insurers laboring under the rising costs of litigation, the Alliance of American Insurers urges quick passage of the President’s plan,” Lawson added.

Topics Medical Professional Liability

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