Malpractice Premiums Begin to Level Off
Hartford Courant
September 19, 2005

Crushed by years of skyrocketing insurance rates, doctors around the nation are starting to see malpractice premiums level off or even drop, raising questions about the insurers' role in the crisis and whether lawsuit awards really need to be capped.

Rate increases are even slowing or stopping in some states that have not limited awards for pain and suffering, including Connecticut, where premium increases in the past have soared as much as 90 percent in a single year.

Physicians and insurers insist the crisis is not over because rates are too high, even with no more increases. They still see laws limiting damages -- ``tort reform'' -- as a key long-term solution.

Some industry critics and academics, though, note that rates have climbed and fallen over time. The new leveling-off, they say, shows the rate roller coaster is driven more by the cycles of competition that insurers acknowledge than by changes in lawsuit costs.

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During the past five years, malpractice claim costs rose an average 4.3 percent a year -- much less than premiums did, according to a national study released in July by Americans for Insurance Reform. It's a coalition that includes industry critics Robert Hunter, director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America, and Jay Angoff, a former Missouri insurance commissioner.

For a copy of the complete article, contact AIR.