Medical Liability Market Looking Up; Physicians' Mutual Insurance Co. Petitions State for Premium Reduction
The State Journal (WV)
September 28, 2006

Five years ago and again three years ago, West Virginia physicians marched through the state Capitol and pleaded with legislators to change the civil justice system.

Doctors wanted help finding affordable medical liability insurance, and they blamed their problems on a skewed legal system that left them prone to too much litigation.

The medical community battled skeptics and outright opposition that said physicians were just in the middle of a hard insurance market. Those opposed to reform said the doctors' claims were not caused by medical malpractice lawsuits, which were the only way for injured patients to recover damages. But despite loud, often emotionally charged opposition, the West Virginia Legislature decided to take action and changed the system in 2001 and 2003.

Today, the West Virginia State Medical Association said those changes are showing signs of working.

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Not everyone is convinced the change in the medical liability insurance market is because of tort reform. In February, for example, the group Americans for Insurance Reform said new data indicates the large increases in medical liability insurance prices seen in the early part of the decade have ended. But the group said that is true regardless of whether individual states enacted civil justice reforms that limited patient compensation awards and other changes.

"The nation is now enjoying a relatively 'soft' insurance market with rates of liability insurance not only stable but down," the group said in its report. "And the 'tort reform' remedy pushed by these advocates failed to do anything except hurt patients."

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For a copy of the complete article, contact AIR.