Americans for Insurance Reform (AIR) is a national coalition of public interest organizations that support effective insurance industry reforms to control skyrocketing insurance rates, reduced insurance coverage, arbitrary policy cancellations, mismanagement and other insurance industry abuses.  AIR is a project of the Center for Justice and Democracy (CJ&D) who is the only national consumer organization in the country exclusively dedicated to protecting our civil justice system.  AIR states that part of their aim is to:

Reform the insurance industry instead of
lose your rights to have your claims paid
and hold wrongdoers accountable in court.

AIR recently released a report titled 'TRUE RISK: Medical Liability,Medical Insurance and Health Care' that sheds new light on the claims of the insurance industry that should be of interest to all that claim that medical malpractice cases are driving up medical malpractice insurance for doctors.  AIR found that:

• Medical malpractice premiums, inflation-adjusted, are nearly the lowest they have been in over 30 years.

• Medical malpractice claims, inflation-adjusted, are dropping significantly, down 45 percent since 2000.

• Medical malpractice premiums are less than one-half of one percent of the country’s overall health care costs; medical malpractice claims are a mere one-fifth of one percent of health care costs. In over 30 years, premiums and claims have never been greater than 1% of our nation’s health care costs.

• Medical malpractice insurer profits are higher than the rest of the property casualty industry, which has been remarkably profitable over the last five years.

• The periodic premium spikes that doctors experience, as they did from 2002 until 2005, are not related to claims but to the economic cycle of insurers and to drops in investment income.

• Many states that have resisted enacting severe restrictions on injured patients’ legal rights experienced rate changes (i.e., premium increases or decreases for doctors) similar to hose states that enacted severe restrictions on patients’ rights, i.e., there is no correlation between “tort reform” and insurance rates for doctors.

I am an attorney who represents people and families that feel the real impact of medical malpractice.  As a past practicing nurse and now as an attorney representing injured people there is no doubt in my mind that the insurance industry in general and medical malpractice insurers in particular are excellent at what they do.  What they do is manipulate the public and their insured (doctors and hospitals) that passing legislation to limit the rights of injured people is a way to increase profits for the insurers.  The insurance companies are pitting doctors against lawyers and driving a wedge between doctors and patients.

I have always said that we have insurance for a reason - we can all make mistakes.  I carry legal malpractice insurance because I can make a mistake and cost a client their case.  If I make such a mistake my insurance will kick in and compensate my client.  The same is true for doctors.  When they make a mistake their insurance should kick in and compensate the injured patient.  The problem in this simple calculation is the insurance companies who, according to AIR, are reaping record profits on the back of injured people.

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