Malpractice Insurance Soars
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
February 25, 2003


In the past several months, New Jersey and West Virginia doctors stopped seeing patients to protest too-costly medical malpractice insurance.

But doctors and health officials here say they won't follow suit.

Physicians in a six-county area around Rochester pay the lowest malpractice premiums in New York - and much less than in many other states, according to Medical Liability Monitor and Medical Liability Mutual Insurance Company, the largest insurer of New York doctors.

…

The physicians want a $250,000 cap on noneconomic damages such as pain and suffering in malpractice lawsuits.

Insurance companies blame expensive verdicts for driving them into bankruptcy or out of the medical liability business. In the last year, St. Paul Cos. - one of the nation's largest commercial providers of medical malpractice insurance - pulled out of the market, which further crippled states like West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

But depending on who you talk to, the cap on pain and suffering awards either effectively lowers premiums or has no relation to insurance costs.

For example, a Medical Liability Monitor report said most states with a cap on noneconomic damages have lower premiums. But then a study by Americans for Insurance Reform said skyrocketing insurance rates are not tied to jury verdicts.

Some attorneys say malpractice lawsuits have nothing to do with the cost of doctors' liability insurance.

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