Facts about the medical liability crisis
- The unrestrained escalation of jury awards and settlements are
driving up liability insurance costs so high that insurance companies,
doctors and trauma centers are being forced out of business.
- In the liability crisis, there is a direct chain-reaction link
between escalating and uncontrolled jury awards and patient access
to care: Liability companies are paying out $1.50 in jury verdicts
and settlements for every $1 collected in premiums, forcing companies
to increase premiums or drop liability coverage all together;
as premiums rise and companies drop coverage, doctors are left
scrambling for insurance and often must move or change their practices
to qualify for insurance or reduce costs; without doctors able
to take trauma call, emergency centers are forced to close; without
doctors or emergency centers in the community, patients are left
without necessary medical care.
- More than one-half of all jury awards exceed one million dollars
and the average award is nearly $3.5 million.
- Over the past several years, physicians across the country have
faced double, and sometimes triple, digit rate increases and many
high-risk specialists are now paying as much as $300,000 per year
in states without adequate medical liability reforms in place.
In addition, many physicians have had to reduce their insurance
levels to alarmingly low levels in order to afford coverage at
all.
- 64.8 percent of American high-risk specialists have made changes
in their practice because of the liability crisis, including no
longer providing certain services, referring complex cases, and
closing their practices.
- Trauma centers are closing their doors either temporarily or
permanently in several states including Nevada, West Virginia,
Pennsylvania, Missouri, Florida and New Jersey because of a loss
of the requisite number of specialists to perform emergency services.
- There are now 19 states facing a medical liability crisis, including:
Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Mississippi,
Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,
Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming.
- It is estimated that enacting federal medical liability reform
legislation could save between $60-108 billion in health care
costs each year and produce up to $19 billion in annual savings
for the federal government.
- The United States House of Representatives passed a substantial
medical liability reform bill in 2003 and President George W.
Bush supports this legislation. However, the bill has been blocked
in the Senate by a filibuster.
The convergence of all of these factors is clearly impeding patient
access to health care.
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