Interesting statistics from the Green Bay Press Gazette (and here we thought Green Bay was just a football team, not a town) today: Over the last 30 years, the number of health insurance bureaucrats has grown 25 times faster than the number of doctors — people involved in such non-health-related…
This from the Kansas City Star on the illusory relationship between health care costs and medical malpractice lawsuits: Yet the push for tort reform rests largely on anecdotal evidence of the occasional large jury verdict or outrageous lawsuit. Despite the perception that “jackpot justice” has fueled soaring costs, hard data…
Write an editorial about medical malpractice. Logic and reason: optional. Just write something. Check out this gem from the Miami Herald: One aspect of the high price of health care and a lot of waste has been overlooked. That is the outrageous cost of malpractice insurance that doctors pay even…
Yesterday, on the Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog, I wrote about the clear plan doctors have of writing as many editorials as possible about medical malpractice. This editorial from Fredericksburg, Virginia fails to follow the ‘talk about defensive medicine’ talking point because the author is too focused on his completely insane…
President Obama’s mad dash for health care reform – which I think is a good thing – might lead him to take a position on medical malpractice reform that puts him in direct conflict with medical malpractice lawyers who have been major donors to President Obama and the Democratic Party.…
In Atlanta, a trial judge found that Georgia cap on noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases violates the Georgia Constitution. I’m no Georgia Constitutional scholar, but the same people that believe we must strictly interpret constitutions oppose this decision without ever picking up a copy of the Georgia Constitution. The…
The Lansdale Reporter offered the following editorial this morning: It’s indeed unfortunate that Lansdale Hospital became the 39th hospital to lose maternity services since the medical malpractice crisis began in 1999. This closing will jeopardize the health of expectant mothers when there is an obstetrical emergency. Brandywine Hospital in Coatesville…
The Volokh Conspiracy has a blog post from David Hyman discussing the logic behind caps on non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases. Apparently, a Harvard Law School student writing a paper on caps asked the principal legislative sponsor of California’s (Draconian) medical malpractice cap why they settled on $250,000. This…
If you are interested in taking a honest look at the medical malpractice problem in Maryland and around the country, Philip G. Peters, Jr’ s 2007 Michigan Law Review Article “Doctors and Juries” is a must read. The article concludes with this: In recap, the data demonstrate that juries treat…
Medical malpractice costs comprise less than 1 of overall health costs. In 2002, medical related costs rose almost 10% to $1.5 trillion. Yet malpractice premiums expenditures were only $9.6 billion – making malpractice costs about .64 percent of national health care expenditures. First, I grant you, this is old data.…