The Truth about Medical Malpractice Damages Caps

There is a crisis in Pennsylvania with doctors leaving and it's high insurance rates and jackpot juries that are driving it. Don't we need caps to help doctors?

There is no doubt that some doctors have had their insurance rates climb beyond reason or rationale, both here in Pennsylvania and across the nation.

It is not true, however, that doctors are leaving Pennsylvania in droves, no more than it is true that they are fleeing any of the almost 30 other states the medical community says doctors are leaving. Where would they all be going?

Major newspapers in the state have examined the data and found not only has there not been an exodus as claimed, but that we have MORE physicians practicing in Pennsylvania than we did just a few years ago.

It is especially important to note that the Pew Foundation found that Pennsylvania continues to have a higher per capita rate than the nation as a whole. And the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, a branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, reported that the number of physicians in Pennsylvania grew by more than 100 percent from 1970 to 2000, even though there have been periodic insurance crises.

Now, there's certainly been some anecdotal evidence that some doctors are leaving because of high rates, but when you dig a little deeper, many of the claims fall apart. In an investigation of which doctors who claimed they were leaving actually left Pennsylvania, the Scranton Times found just about all those doctors were still practicing - and some had even added staff. And the Allentown Morning Call, in their examination of the list of supposedly "disappearing doctors" found an error rate of at least 50%.

Won't caps help lower the rates doctors and hospitals pay - which you admit are too high?

What is clear is that some physicians have seen their rates climb too high without reason. For some of them, particularly if they have been found guilty of malpractice a few times - as some have - who can say what rate they should be paying?

But it is important to know why caps are not the answer to the problems some doctors face. The first is that there's plenty of proof that caps won't even work to lower doctors rates - because they haven't worked in their states.

And that's something even insurance execs admit. Frank B. O'Neil, a Senior Vice President of ProAssurance, a medical malpractice insurer, was quoted in the Scranton Times as saying, "Nobody is saying tort reform is going to reduce rates."

But we shouldn't forget what caps really are: an attack on our legal system. The people who are behind the caps movement want to take away people's right to have a jury examine the evidence and make a determination about what is fair. That's what this is really all about.

A flat cap like the medical community is talking about isn't based on the injury received, the amount of suffering involved or the value of the injured parties' life to their family or their community. It's a "one-size" fits all approach that values the loss of a limb the same as the loss of a life.

But won't caps lower insurance companies' costs?

Of course they will - somewhat - but it's impossible to tell how much because no one keeps track of how much is paid out in non-economic damages at all, much less in awards over $250,000.

But that's not really the question. The question is, will caps lower the rates doctors pay? And the answer seems pretty clear: no, they won't. There are no provisions in any of the "reforms" being debated that will in any way affect how much the profit spread should be for insurance companies.

Frank B. O'Neil, a Senior Vice President of ProAssurance, a medical malpractice insurer, was quoted in the Scranton Times Tribune as saying, "Nobody is saying tort reform is going to reduce rates."