Straight talk about ob-gyns and medical malpractice.Lawyer jokes and uninformed statements bashing the civil justice system have dogged plaintiff attorneys through many a golf game, PTA PTA or parent-teacher association: see parent education. meeting, or dinner party. When a myth about civil justice rears its head, you need to respond with the facts. Q: Is it true that lawsuits by personal injury attorneys are driving ob-gyns and other doctors out of business? A: No. The insurance industry and other special interests that want to limit the rights of patients are using such false claims as a scare tactic. In fact, according to the American Medical Association American Medical Association (AMA), professional physicians' organization (founded 1847). Its goals are to protect the interests of American physicians, advance public health, and support the growth of medical science. , the number of ob-gyns and the number of general practitioners is steadily increasing. The premiums that doctors have to pay for medical malpractice Improper, unskilled, or negligent treatment of a patient by a physician, dentist, nurse, pharmacist, or other health care professional. insurance are too high--that's true. But it's not because of malpractice lawsuits or payments to injured patients, which are actually declining. Instead, the insurance industry is price-gouging doctors to make up for its investment losses. A study by the former insurance commissioner of Missouri looked at the official filings of the biggest medical malpractice insurers. Over the last five years, insurance companies have drastically raised their insurance premiums by more than double, even though claims payments have been flat, or in some cases decreasing. In 2004, malpractice insurers' total premiums were three times higher than their total payouts. This is final proof from the industry's own numbers--that insurance executives are gouging Gouging can be:
The insurance industry gets away with this because it is the only major industry in the country (other than Major League Baseball "MLB" and "Major Leagues" redirect here. For other uses, see MLB (disambiguation) and Major Leagues (disambiguation). Major League Baseball (MLB) is the highest level of play in North American professional baseball. ) that is exempt from federal regulation and antitrust laws antitrust laws n. acts adopted by Congress to outlaw or restrict business practices considered to be monopolistic or which restrain interstate commerce. The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 declared illegal "every contract, combination.... . Insurance industry price-gouging needs to stop--to prevent further victimization victimization Social medicine The abuse of the disenfranchised–eg, those underage, elderly, ♀, mentally retarded, illegal aliens, or other, by coercing them into illegal activities–eg, drug trade, pornography, prostitution. of American families who've already been harmed once by a medical tragedy. We need to reclaim our health care system from the insurance industry and return it to doctors and patients, where it belongs. |
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