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Medical
Malpractice
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The Truth About Medical Malpractice
Skyrocketing medical malpractice insurance premiums...
Doctors abandoning their practices.... The insurance industry wants the public to think
these trends are the result of "frivolous" lawsuits and
"out-of-control" injuries and medical care providers are only too happy to
agree.
But what's the real story?
The problem with medical malpractice is that it occurs far
too often. It is the eighth leading cause of death in America, killing more people than
AIDS, breast cancer, or automobile crashes. Is this the patient's fault? Certainly not.
The Institute of Medicine's 1999 report, To Err is Human:
Building a Safer Health System, reported that up to 98,000 patients die - and many more
are injured - in U.S. hospitals each year as a result of preventable medical errors.
That's 268 deaths every day from errors like surgeons operating on the wrong side of the
brain and nurses administering lethal doses of medication.
So why has a "medical malpractice crises" arisen
now? There were similar "crises" in 1976 and 1986, when, as now, the economy had
recently declined. The insurance companies, which derive most of their profits from
investments, suffered from bad business decisions. Then, as now, the covered their losses
by raising insurance premiums dramatically, then blamed innocent patients who sought
compensation for negligence-related injuries - and, of course, their lawyers.
When St. Paul Insurance Co., one of the major medical
malpractice insurers, announced earlier this year that it was getting out of the business,
it claimed growing malpractice verdicts were the problem. The company conveniently failed
to mention that its economic hardship was really caused by poor investments - including
the $108 million it lost when Enron collapsed.
Doctors and insurers say that limiting malpractice awards
would hold down insurance costs. But the truth is that insurance premiums are slightly
higher in states the cap damages.
The negligence of bad doctors and the bad business decisions
of insurance companies are not the fault of the patients who are mistreated. Yet it is
patients who will be punished - more than they already have been - if doctors and insurers
succeed in convincing the public that limiting justice is the solution to their troubles. (Source
- Leo Boyle - Author- Trial - April 2002)
Free Consultations
You may contact us by telephone toll free at (800) 709-1123
Use our online consultation form or by e-mail.
You may need personal injury lawyers to protect your
rights! Where a more serious and/or permanent injury has been sustained, an
individual who does not have the training and experience in personal injury law,
is not on an even playing field with the claims representative and/or defense attorneys.
Claim reps have specialized
training, experience, and are closely supervised to operate within strict insurance
company guidelines. Nonetheless, insurance adjusters many times will go to great lengths
to keep an injured accident victim from hiring a personal injury lawyer to represent them.
Their insurance
company is motivated to do only one thing,
settle your claim as cheaply as possible.
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