Comments on: A Proposal to Raise Rates Yet Again….

By: m (2)

m (2) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 21:25:11 +0000

I read an article last year about Michigan experiencing the same problem with OB-GYNs leaving the state because of the high cost of malpractice insurance.

One problem seems to be the likelihood of a lay jury feeling sympathy for the patient, regardless of the medical facts of the case. Cutting off the wrong leg is one thing, but what about cases where the patient received excellent medical care, or a minor mistake was irrelevant to a bad outcome? I wonder how much money is spent on illegitimate malpractice cases?

By: Food Service Ninja

Food Service Ninja — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 16:50:01 +0000

I think if you looked into big insurance firms they would have some money in the the mortgage market. They buy into lots of things beside bonds and fed debt. And loses from the non-malpractice side could be in play here too.

I live in Texas and I believe the OBs on the border are the most sued in the nation and they are fleeing the specialty. Several factors come into play. Rapidly growing population with lots of recent immigrants. A lot of them live in outlying unregulated development areas with little to no running water and sewage. Housing by US standards is abysmal thus they contribute little to the tax base. The border counties until you get into the Rio Grande Valley are HUGE so they have a greater ratio of infrastructure per capital to support (mainly roads/bridges). Not to mention the bulk of the money will get spent in the more developed areas of the county (thats where the active voters will be).

I think tort reform CAN go too far though. Texas limits the damages to $250K. If I go in to have say my right leg removed and you leave me the bad right one and cut off my good left one I do not think I would find that very equitable.

By: admin

admin — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 00:31:58 +0000

Yes, Silver makes me nauseated. He just gave some state appointment to someone is his personal injury law firm - but claims there is “no conflict of interest”. Yeah, right.

By: Doc99

Doc99 — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 20:19:10 +0000

NY’s med mal insurers invested the money in T-bills, bonds and other fixed rate securities. There is no sub-prime exposure. Blaming the stock market and the sub-prime mess for the lack of insurance company reserves is sheer nonsense. Truth be told, the malpractice mess in NY is the responsibility of State Government malfeasance, compounded by the blatant conflict of interest of the Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. For more info on Silver, look here:

http://www.nypost.com/seven/03012008/news/nationalnews/silver__conflict__what_conflict__99903.htm

By: ER RN

ER RN — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 16:28:43 +0000

We have a problem like this in Oregon. We’ve lost quite a few OB docs statewide. My county has 2 OB docs only. It’s a scary situation.

By: EE

EE — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 20:11:40 +0000

I read somewhere that awhile back 1 in 4 OB patients on the Mexico/TX border sued.

If you saw 10 patients a day, at least 2 would sue you.

They wonder why no one wants to be a damn OB doc anymore.

By: Allen Taylor

Allen Taylor — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:00:38 +0000

I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you.

Allen Taylor