Insurance Expert Disputes Doctors; Says Cap on Awards is Not Solution
The Record
February 1, 2003

Blame the insurance industry's ups and downs and not runaway jury awards for the high insurance rates bedeviling doctors, a consumers' group said Friday.

As angry New Jersey doctors planned to strike on Monday in protest over malpractice insurance rates, Americans for Insurance Reform released a study that found that malpractice payouts and premiums have stayed steady over the past decade.

"Any claim that there's an explosion in jury verdicts driving high rates for doctors is just not true," said the report's author, J. Robert Hunter, a former U.S. and Texas insurance commissioner.

Instead of caps on awards, as doctors are demanding, Hunter argued that regulating insurance companies' investment strategies is a better way to hold down rate increases.

. . .

Thousands of New Jersey physicians are planning an unprecedented walkout on Monday to protest soaring premiums they say are forcing them out of business. Some say they won't see patients - aside from emergency cases - until New Jersey caps the amount that juries can award patients for pain and suffering.

Hunter, the nation's insurance guru under Presidents Ford and Carter, said premiums are spiking for the same reason they have during other run-ups - the economy is bad and insurance companies need to fill their coffers.

Over the last 16 years, the total of malpractice settlements and jury awards has risen no faster than the rate of inflation in the medical industry, he said. Adjusting for inflation, malpractice payments have been flat over the decade, he said.

For a copy of the complete article, contact AIR.