From The Middle: Medical malpractice awards are not "skyrocketing".

A shocker!!! More Spin!!!

Uhh....seeing as my Websense won't let me get to this "middle" advocacy group's website....did the story mention the VOLUME of malpractice suits?

You know....that would be quite relevant to the comparison.

 

My wife practices at a medical malpractice defense firm. The statistics you have showed are extremely misleading. Look at what has happened over the last 10 years.

The average med mal award has increased from $350,000 to $850,000.

As a result of these judgments, med mal insurance premiums increased 100% across the board in Texas last year. Because most doctors get their remuneration from their patient's health insurance, they can't pass the added costs along to their patients. They get whatever the insurance companies are paying. That amount is in constant decline.

You may wish to consider digging a little deeper into the facts before posting such an accusation against the President.

 

That settles it. Since I can't win the freaking lottery, I'm suing my doctor.

After all, I just sneezed, and it was followed by a cough!

 

there you go again, no worries....

 

What were the numbers on how many surgical instruments had been left inside patients' bodies? I suppose those people only deserve free surgery to remove the misplaced instruments. Is there any way to calculate if the malpractice suits are mostly frivilous or if Doctors are just getting careless?

 

there was nothing...i mean nothing...about the propensity of surgeons leaving junior mints inside their patients' bodies!

 

It was a miracle from above

 

"they're very refreshing."

 

To get an accurate view of the relationship between premiums and lawsuits, you cannot only look at the increase in the median size of each. You must also look to see if the frequency of lawsuits has increased over that time period.

Taking the 35% increase in the median payment, if the frequency of claims rose by 10% (2% a year for the years cited), you would get a 39% increase in insurance premiums.

I do not know if the frequency has increase over the past 5 years. Just a quick math note before any conclusions can be reached from the data noted.

 

that's what I said.

 

This citizens.org group was founded by Ralph Nader. How is this in the "middle?"

And why is the left so strongly against reforming this? Oh yeah, because trial lawyers are a big lobbying group.

 

I'm 100% tort reform that limits how much money someone can receive in judgment, and I have yet to receive a check from any trial lawyers lobby group.

 

i saw where california put a limit of $250K on punitive damages in med mal cases....sounds good to me...i can't believe california got this one right.

doctors on strike does not sound like a good alternative to me.

 

Well, I think there should be more ramifications to the lawyers who bring these frivolous law suits. If the truly ridiculous one's make it to trial, something should be done to the judge who let it in, and I'm also guessing many of those are reversed on appeal.
Maybe you should put the awarding of money into the judges hands instead of the jury's.

There are too many other things that can be done before you decide to do this. I don't feel the least bit comfortable limiting how much people can be awarded though.

 

really?? even for punitive damages?? we're not talking about economic damages...i mean, if a person can prove up $1 million in economic damages, they can still recover it. it just prevents the situation where there are just a few thousand in economic damages, and then a few million in punitive damages.

i agree, there should be ramifications for frivilous lawsuits...the problem is balancing that against the idea of everyone having their day in court...the sliding scale for defining frivilous is not an easy one, particularly whether a case is frivilous or not rests on expert medical opinion...

awarding damages can ultimately be done by the judge...we see judges slash what the jury awards all the time...sometimes they'll even reverse the judgment if it doesn't fit with what the law saysor what was actually proved up in court. it's called a judgment notwithstanding the verdict.

 

Certainly beginning to look like you're really preoccupied with Bush.

Aside from the potential volume issue mentioned above...

Several States, particulalrly ones w/o Caps, are having a problem with the malpractice rates causing many physicians of specific specialties to close their doors. Guess what happens to the prices that the remaining specialists charge? Of course, this inflation is not represented as a 'direct' cost of malpractice claims.

Similarly, 'defensive' medicine increases costs as unnecessary procedures are performed to fend off any possible suits. I don't think that there are good estimates available on the cost of defensive medicine, but it definitely exists and drives up health care costs. Again, not included in the analysis.

There may be more...I feel too lazy right now to think about it... (like someone else... ).

 

really?? even for punitive damages?? we're not talking about economic damages...i mean, if a person can prove up $1 million in economic damages, they can still recover it. it just prevents the situation where there are just a few thousand in economic damages, and then a few million in punitive damages.


Seems to me if a doctor is completely negligent and costs someone both of his arms and legs, the non-economic damage to the guy never being able to live the life that he wants or experience all the things that life can offer could very well be worth more than $250,000.

 

Well, I don't see how limiting what you can win in punitive damages balances it out. If a judge has the power to slash what jury's award or they can be reduced upon appeal, then I don't understand what the problem is. We should be focusing on the judges, juries and lawyers way before we decide to screw people who've been screwed over.

 

those aren't punitive damages...punitive damages are nothing more than punishment...economic damages include loss of employment...loss of intimacy with your wife....all sorts of "soft" issues...punitive damages are only meant as punishment...and ultimately, whether it's $250K or more, if it's covered by the insurance company and not the doctor, who is ultimately getting punished?