Chicago Tribune
May 10, 2005
www.chicagotribune.com

Letter to the Editor: Medical Malpractice Insurance
Todd A. Smith

In response to your editorial, "Looking out for your health" (5/6/05), you are right to say that doctors are being gouged by the insurance industry. Medical malpractice insurance premiums are far too high.

But the solution is not to penalize the most severely injured victims of medical negligence, which will only further enrich the insurance companies and do nothing to lower doctors' premiums, reduce medical errors, or increase access to quality health care.

"We have not promised price reductions with tort reform," an American Insurance Association spokesman told the Tribune on January 3, 2005. A report in another local publication indicated that ISMIE Mutual Insurance Co. charged Illinois doctors $270.1 million more in premiums than it paid in malpractice payouts in 2004, while the company CEO's compensation rose to $947,793.

That is why the leaders of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA) have been trying to meet with the leadership of the American Medical Association (AMA) for the last three years to discuss insurance reforms that can hold down rates and improvements in patient safety that can reduce the need for medical malpractice litigation. After repeated invitations, the president of the AMA finally has agreed to meet with me in mid-June.

The proposed cap on so-called non-economic damages, the only compensation a jury can provide for serious injuries like paraplegia, blindness, loss of limbs, death of a child, or abuse of a parent in a nursing home, would substitute a big-government, one-size-fits-all amount set by politicians for the wisdom of 12 Illinois men and women sitting on a jury who hear all the facts.

Every reliable study has shown that it is solely the business practices of the insurance industry that has caused this insurance premium crisis. Regrettably, Illinois has the most lax insurance regulation in the nation. The insurance industry should be required to justify every premium rate increase.