Kentucky Injury Law Blog

Any Kentucky Medical Malpractice Attorney knows that lawsuits are not to blame for the rapid rise of malpractice premiums. OB/GYNs want to blame cerebral palsy lawyers. Thanks to Americans for Insurance Reform, we have data to refute their claims.

 

Thanks to my good friend Hans Poppe for finding this article.  No surprise here, jury verdicts DON’T drive premiums up.

 

New study in Illinois malpractice debate
By Adam Jadhav
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
03/29/2007

An umbrella activist group calling for insurance reform released a study Wednesday in an attempt to refute the claim that out-of-control litigation prompted medical malpractice insurance rates to skyrocket in recent years.

Americans for Insurance Reform says annual insurance industry numbers show that the amount of money paid for medical malpractice settlements, verdicts and legal defense has remained relatively flat for almost two decades, when adjusted for inflation and accounting for the growing number of doctors nationally.

According to the study — which based its findings on information from A.M. Best & Co., an insurance industry analyst firm — the total amount of money paid was almost $4.9 billion in 2005 nationally. The study calculated that to be a payout of $5,400 dollars per doctor, the lowest since 1981 when adjusted for inflation.

The study's author, a former government official, said those numbers indicate that the rising insurance rates that drove doctors to leave Madison and St. Clair counties can't be the result of the active trial bars of the Metro East area. Instead, market-related forces — poor performance in investment bonds — and bad insurance company management are to blame, said J. Robert Hunter, a former federal insurance administrator during President Gerald Ford's administration. He is now with the Consumer Federation of America.

STLtoday - News - Illinois News.