Insurers Need to be Reined in
Boston Herald
September 21, 2003

Lots of gobbledygook is going around these days involving medical malpractice and proposed caps on pain and suffering awards.

Insurance companies claim that exorbitant, noneconomic damage awards are forcing them to charge higher premiums. Doctors claim that they can no longer afford to do business because their premiums are too high. And lawyers claim they are being unfairly blamed and their clients are not receiving their just due.

One thing is clear in these raging debates: The insurance industry is driving the bus, and surprise, surprise, they are not telling the whole truth.

"The doctors are blaming the victims of medical malpractice instead of putting the blame for malpractice insurance rates where it belongs, at the insurance industry's door," said David Bikofsky, president of the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys. "Artificial caps don't work. The insurance industry just hikes the rates as high as they want regardless of cost so they can keep their profit margins high."

Recent studies completed by Americans for Insurance Reform, a coalition of100 consumer groups across the country, have produced some startling information and appear to support Bikofsky's assertions.

In a study released in January, the group examined medical malpractice payouts over the last 10 years. Their study claims that the average payout was $28,524. More disturbing was that insurers were not paying anything on 77 percent of all claims.

For a copy of the complete article, contact AIR.