Yes, I posted it earlier in this thread: http://www.overlawyered.com/archives/000167.html GAO: legal costs drive med-mal rates Congress's General Accounting Office confirms what the Department of Health and Human Services and Joint Economic Committee (PDF) have found before it: "Increases in medical malpractice insurance rates in some states, including Pennsylvania, were due largely to high payoffs on legal claims, according to a congressional survey released yesterday. ...'Losses on medical malpractice claims appear to be the primary driver of increased premium rates in the long term,' the report states. 'Such losses are by far the largest component of insurer costs.'" (Lara Jakes Jordan, "Malpractice insurance rise tied to legal claims", AP/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Jul. 29). Study: "Medical Malpractice Insurance: Multiple Factors Have Contributed to Increased Premium Rates", Jun. (PDF format).
Nicely done, considering you are a scum-sucking ambulance chaser. I just wish I didn't share your same concerns over the possible extension of Prop 12.
thanks, i must of missed it earlier ok, now the next question is, does Prop 12 solve that problem? Is the problem juries giving too high of awards? Is the problem a bunch of bad doc's? Not enough oversight on doc's? does prop 12 address the Illness or does it address the sympton?
Well I'm no attorney. I've worked in the healthcare industry for 15 years. I worked for 4 HMOs that love this type of law, and all of my existing client love it. It's still the wrong solution for a bad problem. It will not have a significant impact on the cost of healthcare in Texas. Physicians have already created an environment in Texas which is anti-managed care, so we have one of the highest uninsured rates in the nation. Now we will have doctors, hospitals and carriers who have less financial incentive to not screw up, and screw up they do. You have it backwards: Those doctors, hospital administrators and insurance executives will all drive faster Mercedes and can now kill even more people.
Ok.. Prop 12 passes due to low voter turnout. Now to the crux of my argument. Trial Lawyers have a standard of living. When you are used to driving a nice car or living in a phat pad, you are going to do whatever it takes to keep your stuff. My bro-in-law is a lawyer. He feels that there are going to be even more lawsuits now because of the cap. I totally agree with him. Prop 12 is only going to make the volume of frivolous lawsuits because firms will take on cases that they normally wouldn't. What do yall think?
Possibly very insightful. The same effect is borne out in research on physician practice patterns. E.g., when there are more of a given specialty in a geographic area, price competition does not take place...volume increases. Similar effects were seen when Medicare first reduced some reimbursement rates to physicians: volume increased to offset decreased per unit rates. In future algorithms, Medicare was forced to implement volume controls.
