New Americans For Insurance Reform Study Refutes Insurance Industry's Explanation For Rising Medical Malpractice Rates
New York Voice Inc./Harlem USA
October 23, 2002

Americans for Insurance Reform (AIR), a coalition of nearly 100 consumer and public interest groups representing more than 50 million people, announced the release of a comprehensive study of medical malpractice. The study refutes the insurance industry's explanation for rising medical malpractice rates and undermines industry claims that a medical malpractice crisis for insurers exists (the entire study is available at www.insurance-reform.org).

The AIR study makes two specific findings: First, over the last 30 years, medical malpractice payouts have directly tracked the rate of medical inflation; and second, over the same period, insurance premium rates have not tracked payouts at all (e.g. jury verdicts, settlements, etc.), but instead directly follow the ups and downs of the economy.

One of the study's major findings show that the amount of money that medical malpractice payouts at any time during the last 30 years, as payments in constant dollars have been extremely stable and virtually flat since the mid-1980s.

The second major finding of the study is that for the last 30 years, insurance premium increased and decreased in direct relationship to the state of the economy, and not in response to insurance policy payouts. When the economy is strong and the insurance industry's market investments are gaining, medical malpractice rates decrease.

For a copy of the complete article, contact AIR.