Requests for medical malpractice insurance rate increases in Texas and California, two states that cap lawsuit awards are proof that taking away the rights of wrongfully injured people does not result in lower premiums for doctors.
The nation’s largest medical malpractice insurer, GE Medical Protective, in a filing, admitted that non-economic damages are a small percentage of total losses paid. Capping non-economic damages will show loss savings of 1%. Medical malpractice caps on damage awards and other limitations on recoveries for injured patients will not lower physicians’ premiums.
Texas lawmakers were pressured into voting for a $250,000 cap on noneconomic damages. Now, the medical malpractice insurers are asking for a 19 percent rate hike on doctors in the Lone Star State. GE Medical Protective is also pushing for a rate hike in California, a state that has capped damage awards for three decades.
If caps are supposed to be the “magic bullet,” then why are medical malpractice insurance rates going up? Why are doctors still claiming that they need more relief? This isn’t just a problem associated with caps being in place for a short while. California has had caps since the 1970’s, yet doctors there are facing a 29 percent rate hike.
This is just more proof that the problem is not medical malpractice awards, as GE Medical Protective admitted when they said that capping noneconomic damages only results in a one percent loss savings. One percent savings is not enough to balance out taking away the rights of wrongfully injured people to be fairly compensated.
When the largest malpractice insurer in the nation tells a regulator that caps on damages don’t work, every legislator, regulator and voter in the nation should listen.
I am a resident in a Designated Superfund Site and I feel this reform is unfair! To give an example if this Reform passes people who have related Diseases due to exposure of a toxic substance, victims will be barred from suits to force companies to provide medical coverage or wage losses,precription costs or other related expenses. It will also limit suits being filed against companies or businesses for damages unless you are dead or dying or have cancer!
You tell me that is fair when a whole Community has been exposed to a Deadly Substance for years and to barr them from medical coverage when the diseases do not show for years. How can that benefit my children who will suffer, or other families children who will suffer and they cant pay the medical bills for their loved ones!
This reform is not for the victims it is for the Businesses to limit their Liability to people! This reform is not to benefit us. Just look into a miners face and tell him that this reform will benefit his family when they were exposed by way of the toxic substance being brought home on the Miners clothes and it gave their families Asbestosis! This is a disease which under this reform will be barred from being covered or take away the right to sue for loss!
If they want reform how about barring Toxic Substances from being sold and exposing people to these substances.
Everyone to this day thinks Asbestos was out lawed but the ruling was overturned and the substance is still being used in products and exposing people to cancer causing agents and causing disease!
Its not reform we need. We need the feds to launch an investigation into the practices of Plantiff attorneys. We need our government to step in and STOP attorneys from abusing the laws they help make and getting away with it. Thats the problem. All else will correct itself if this happens.
Eighty percent of U.S. doctors and half of nurses surveyed said they had seen colleagues make mistakes, but only 10 percent ever spoke up, according to a study by consulting group VitalSmarts. They say healthcare workers who do speak up are not only able to nip the problem in the bud, but are also happier in their own work.
However, it is a falacy for the public to believe that physicians and nurses are empowered to police themselves. This intimidation is getting worse and threatens any real improvement in patient safety issues. The reason most physicians and nurses do not speak up is that there is a very real and efficient retaliation system in place in most medical institutions.
If the public knew that most caregivers risk their jobs, privileges (which puts a doctor in the data bank and that is career ending), lawsuits, malpractice charges, increased premiums, and defamation when they speak up.
And, in court hospitals hide behind “peer review” protection. It can take hundreds of thousands of dollars, even a million, just to pierce that veil. Most physicians don’t have that kind of money hanging around. This is a no win situation for most physicians. The hopsitals almost never seem to find physicians disruptive, abusive or negligent who are making income for the facility.
Until there are fundamental shifts in the “freedom” of physicians and nurses to speak out for patient care without fear of retaliation, litigation, revoking privileges, etc., all the studies on earth about errors will be the relentless clacking of wheels going round and round but not touching the ground.
Requests for medical malpractice insurance rate increases in Texas and California, two states that cap lawsuit awards are proof that taking away the rights of wrongfully injured people does not result in lower premiums for doctors.
The nation’s largest medical malpractice insurer, GE Medical Protective, in a filing, admitted that non-economic damages are a small percentage of total losses paid. Capping non-economic damages will show loss savings of 1%. Medical malpractice caps on damage awards and other limitations on recoveries for injured patients will not lower physicians’ premiums.
Texas lawmakers were pressured into voting for a $250,000 cap on noneconomic damages. Now, the medical malpractice insurers are asking for a 19 percent rate hike on doctors in the Lone Star State. GE Medical Protective is also pushing for a rate hike in California, a state that has capped damage awards for three decades.
If caps are supposed to be the “magic bullet,” then why are medical malpractice insurance rates going up? Why are doctors still claiming that they need more relief? This isn’t just a problem associated with caps being in place for a short while. California has had caps since the 1970’s, yet doctors there are facing a 29 percent rate hike.
This is just more proof that the problem is not medical malpractice awards, as GE Medical Protective admitted when they said that capping noneconomic damages only results in a one percent loss savings. One percent savings is not enough to balance out taking away the rights of wrongfully injured people to be fairly compensated.
When the largest malpractice insurer in the nation tells a regulator that caps on damages don’t work, every legislator, regulator and voter in the nation should listen.
I am a resident in a Designated Superfund Site and I feel this reform is unfair! To give an example if this Reform passes people who have related Diseases due to exposure of a toxic substance, victims will be barred from suits to force companies to provide medical coverage or wage losses,precription costs or other related expenses. It will also limit suits being filed against companies or businesses for damages unless you are dead or dying or have cancer!
You tell me that is fair when a whole Community has been exposed to a Deadly Substance for years and to barr them from medical coverage when the diseases do not show for years. How can that benefit my children who will suffer, or other families children who will suffer and they cant pay the medical bills for their loved ones!
This reform is not for the victims it is for the Businesses to limit their Liability to people! This reform is not to benefit us. Just look into a miners face and tell him that this reform will benefit his family when they were exposed by way of the toxic substance being brought home on the Miners clothes and it gave their families Asbestosis! This is a disease which under this reform will be barred from being covered or take away the right to sue for loss!
If they want reform how about barring Toxic Substances from being sold and exposing people to these substances.
Everyone to this day thinks Asbestos was out lawed but the ruling was overturned and the substance is still being used in products and exposing people to cancer causing agents and causing disease!
Julie (Troy, Montana)
“Designated Superfund Site”
Its not reform we need. We need the feds to launch an investigation into the practices of Plantiff attorneys. We need our government to step in and STOP attorneys from abusing the laws they help make and getting away with it. Thats the problem. All else will correct itself if this happens.
Eighty percent of U.S. doctors and half of nurses surveyed said they had seen colleagues make mistakes, but only 10 percent ever spoke up, according to a study by consulting group VitalSmarts. They say healthcare workers who do speak up are not only able to nip the problem in the bud, but are also happier in their own work.
However, it is a falacy for the public to believe that physicians and nurses are empowered to police themselves. This intimidation is getting worse and threatens any real improvement in patient safety issues. The reason most physicians and nurses do not speak up is that there is a very real and efficient retaliation system in place in most medical institutions.
If the public knew that most caregivers risk their jobs, privileges (which puts a doctor in the data bank and that is career ending), lawsuits, malpractice charges, increased premiums, and defamation when they speak up.
And, in court hospitals hide behind “peer review” protection. It can take hundreds of thousands of dollars, even a million, just to pierce that veil. Most physicians don’t have that kind of money hanging around. This is a no win situation for most physicians. The hopsitals almost never seem to find physicians disruptive, abusive or negligent who are making income for the facility.
Until there are fundamental shifts in the “freedom” of physicians and nurses to speak out for patient care without fear of retaliation, litigation, revoking privileges, etc., all the studies on earth about errors will be the relentless clacking of wheels going round and round but not touching the ground.