Medical malpractice insurers wrongly blame patients for skyrocketing rates

Medical malpractice insurers wrongly blame patients for skyrocketing rates

Using a public relations strategy that’s worked for it in the past, the insurance industry has created an artificial medical malpractice insurance “crisis” to justify rate increases for hospitals and doctors. The “crisis” takes the focus off the insurance industry’s internal problems that are at the root of the rate increases and makes villains out of the patients who’ve been harmed by health care providers and the attorneys who represent them. Also if you have any estate planning issue, Rockville, MD estate planning lawyers are experience in dealing with similar cases.

Hospitals, doctors and other health care providers purchase medical malpractice insurance to help cover the costs of any damages resulting from a medical mistake. This coverage is similar to the liability insurance consumers purchase for their homes and vehicles. If you cause a traffic wreck or someone is hurt in an accident on your property; then the liability insurance you purchased is supposed to cover the cost of any settlement or lawsuit judgment against you. The insurance industry is using the medical malpractice “crisis” they manufactured to pressure Congress and state legislatures into passing laws that limit the amount of money an injured patient can recover in a lawsuit against a negligent health care provider. Such limits are generally referred to as “caps” on damages. Lawyers at https://dallimarino.com/ have vast experience in dealing with such cases.

What the insurance industry is not telling the public is that a major reason its profits are down is because of a steep decline in its investment income. The way insurance companies make money is that they place many of the premium dollars they receive in various investments, including the stock market. As most who own stock , the stock market suffered a huge drop in profits over the past few years.

An analysis of investments made by medical malpractice insurers shows that their investment gains dropped from 44 percent in 1993 to 12 percent in 2002-a decline of almost two-thirds over a 10- year period. In 2002, this loss represented a difference of $2.1 billion and one-third of all premium dollars collected.

The insurance industry won’t talk about these numbers because it’s chosen instead to blame the victims of medical mistakes for its reduced profits. It’s another case of unscrupulous practices by big businesses that leave consumers as victims.