Report Reveals Malpractice Insurance Price Gouging
A recently released study of medical malpractice insurance premiums charged by insurance companies supports what we have been saying for several years: payments to innocent malpractice survivors are not responsible for increased malpractice insurance premiums. The study, released in July 2005, suggests that doctors are victims of price-gouging by insurance companies who continue to raise malpractice insurance premiums even as claims decline.
According to the Attorney General of one state: "The data in the Annual Statements filed under oath with state insurance departments, which this Report discloses, call into question much of what the medical malpractice insurance industry has been saying publicly during the past several years." Click here for the full article text.
"The numbers underscore the need for much tougher, more aggressive oversight to prevent and punish profiteering," Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said. "Federal and state regulators should thoroughly scrutinize recent rate increases and take appropriate corrective action."
Under the guise of so called "tort reform," the insurance industry and their big business colleagues have been spending millions attempting to eliminate the legal rights of injured parties. In order to divert attention from the record profits generated by the insurance industry in recent years, they have tried to make doctors the public face of the effort by dramatically raising the malpractice insurance premiums. Sadly, most doctors, including those in DC, Maryland and Virginia, have blindly become pawns of the insurance industry by seeking to limit the rights of those individuals injured through negligent and careless conduct of hospitals and doctors, as opposed to seeking to determine the true cause of the increases in premiums.
We urge you to contact your state insurance commisioner and demand that they "thoroughly scrutinize the recent rate increases" before they consider eliminating the legal rights of those injured by malpractice.