Insurance Reform, Not Tort Reform, is Key to Controlling Cost of Med-Mal Insurance
St. Charles County Business Record (MO)
April 6, 2004


Tort reform and extremely high medical malpractice insurance premiums are believed by many to be directly related. In fact, tort reform legislation for the state of Missouri has been said to be the only way of keeping doctors from leaving the practice of medicine.

But, as is with all things, there is another side to the story.

Richard Gartner, attorney at The Gartner Law Firm in St. Charles, spoke at a Pachyderm Club meeting on Friday to offer the other side of the tort reform debate.

…

According to information gathered from the Department of Insurance, Gartner charted malpractice insurance premiums charged to doctors between 1988 to 2002. He pointed out that premiums for malpractice insurance paid in 2001 were less than the total malpractice insurance premiums paid in 1989.

Juries, as opposed to legislators, are the best judges of verdicts, Gartner said, and capping verdicts takes away juries' rights to award fair damages based on the evidence.

In addition, Gartner gave a list of states that passed tort reform legislation and the effect it had on malpractice insurance. According to New York-based Americans for Insurance Reform, Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, Ohio, Mississippi and Nevada have passed tort reform legislation, and in all cases, malpractice insurance premiums either remained the same or increased by as much as 80 percent.

For a copy of the complete article, contact AIR.