High Insurance Costs Driving Doctors
Boston Globe
January 8, 2003

Eight of 55 obstetrician-gynecologists at Springfield's busiest hospital recently dropped their obstetrics practices, citing the escalating cost of insurance against patient lawsuits. Clinics in Springfield, North Adams, and throughout Western Massachusetts are similarly struggling to keep obstetricians, neurologists, and some surgeons in the face of ballooning insurance costs.

In the past month, rising malpractice insurance prices sparked an unheard-of strike by surgeons in West Virginia and almost prompted an even larger job action in Pennsylvania. Last year, malpractice rate hikes forced service reductions in 20 percent of US hospitals, according to the American Hospital Association.

After three years of sharp increases in the cost of malpractice insurance, doctors nationwide appear ready to draw a line in the sand, fighting back with uncharacteristic fury in state legislatures, the halls of Congress and, in rare cases, on picket lines. In Massachusetts, the leading doctors' organization is pushing a bill to limit malpractice payouts. And some doctors are fighting the system by leaving their specialties behind.

. . .

A recent study by Americans for Insurance Reform, a consumer group, found that premiums went up between 1973 and 1976, and again from 1983 to 1986, both roughly during slumps in the overall US economy and stock market. Consumer groups suggest this proves insurance companies raise malpractice premiums mostly to compensate for investment losses.

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