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Sunday, April 06, 2003His firm, Senn Dunn Marsh & Roland, writes liability coverage for almost half the doctors in Greensboro, about 300 of them, and in recent months Ward three times has been unable to find insurance for local physicians — at any price. "I had to tell those doctors to go home, shut their doors and tell the office they were sick," Ward said. "You have no insurance." ....There is no doubt of a problem. North Carolina providers saw an average premium increase on liability coverage of 50 percent last year, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Only seven companies officially underwrite malpractice insurance in North Carolina right now — down from 10 just last year — and only four of them are truly active; no new players seem interested in entering the market, insurance observers say. One doctor sums up the situation succinctly: "If the insurance companies can't stay in business, then we can't get insurance. And if we can't get insurance, we can't practice," Amundson said. "If we can't practice, we can't provide health care. That's why this is a public issue." As usual, the trial lawyer association argues that caps for noneconomic damages only penalize the injured. (Funny, they never mention how caps also penalize trial lawyers.) This idea that an award of millions of dollars somehow compensates for injury deserves to be challenged. Whenever I hear that argument, I think of one of my patients who had a stroke during surgery. She sued and won a multi-million dollar award. It hasn't bought her happiness. It hasn't even bought her emotional adjustment. The stroke remains the defining moment of her life, and the source of a tremendous amount of bitterness and misery, which she inflicts not only on herself, but on all those around her. Sure, she lives in a beautiful new house now, complete with a lot of added features designed to make life easier for a person who can only use one hand. But, she doesn't use them. She prefers instead to require the assistance, and thus the attention, of her family members. I've had other stroke patients whose illnesses were not the result of surgery, but rather of random events, who are much worse off, but who function better both on a physical and emotional level. The difference is in their spirit. Putting caps on non-economic damages would not change any of this, of course. My patient would be equally bitter and dysfunctional no matter what the justice system did. And that's precisely my point - large monetary awards do not alleviate pain and suffering. They do, however, drive malpractice insurance companies - and doctors - out of business. UPDATE: A rebuttal from a trial lawyer. Just have to say, though, that from cases that I've read about in the news and heard about from colleagues, I have trouble believing that the cost of bringing a case makes the majority of trial lawyers overly selective in the cases they take. I've heard too many tales of frivolous suits being filed and then dropped only much later in the game. Also, can't say if I'm "conflating economic and non-economic damages" in this case. I don't know the details of the award. But, I suspect that a significant chunk of it was for non-economic damages. posted by Sydney on 4/06/2003 10:10:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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