An update on malpractice and my site

Why is tort reform still on the national agenda at a time when insurance-industry profits rose, tort filings declined, only 2 percent of injured people sued for compensation, punitive damages were rarely awarded, liability-insurance costs for businesses were minuscule, medical-malpractice insurance and claims were less than 1 percent of all health care costs and premium-gouging underwriting practices were widely exposed?

The property/casualty industry’s profits rose 997% in 2003! The industry made $29.9 billion in profits last year, almost ten times the $3 billion they made in 2002. (AM Best Statistical Report, Advanced Financial Results, Property Casualty Writers 2003, April 12, 2004; Insurance Services Office & Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, “Sharp Increase in P/C Industry’s Net Income Propels Surplus Upward in 2003,” April 14, 2004).

The insurance industry’s “return on equity in 2004 is likely to soar above double digits for the first time since 1997.” (Insurance Information Institute, “Groundhog Forecast for 2004.”)

Insurers have refused to lower malpractice insurance premiums after caps and other “tort reforms” have been enacted. States that have enacted legal restrictions have seen their insurance rates continue to shoot up, even after passing severe liability limits (e.g., Florida, Nevada, Ohio, Missouri and Texas).

According to a review of Medicare records by HealthGrades, a health-care ranking group, there were 195,000 deaths annually from avoidable medical errors, twice the number estimated by the Institute of Medicine study.

Legislation to place limits on medical malpractice liability hurts patients by restricting their rights to hold physicians, hospitals, insurance companies, HMOs, and drug and medical device manufacturers accountable for injuries or death resulting from negligent care. A bill will do nothing to make healthcare or medical malpractice insurance more available or more affordable.

A report by the American Medical Association’s Board of Trustees to its House of Delegates acknowledged that increasing malpractice insurance premiums were linked to the insurance underwriting cycle.
As for the claim of ever-climbing jury awards, studies of verdicts are skewed by what study sponsors leave in or leave out. The Medical Associations looked only at reported jury verdicts. The Trial Lawyers tracked all verdicts, including non-jury verdicts, through appeals, settlements and court-ordered reductions.

Limits on the rights of people hurt by medical malpractice will victimize them and their families further while helping neither patients nor doctors. The real beneficiaries will be insurance companies, including the doctor-owned malpractice insurers.

Medical malpractice happened to me. I no longer believe the medical industry hype. They just want to keep malpractice out of the news by preventing large malpractice judgements. Lawyers only want to do the serious cases like brain damage. A doctor can do a lot of damage before you get a lawyer to take your case. A small percentage of doctors commit malpractice over all areas of practice. These doctors are protected instead of rooted out. I had an absurdly improperly done septoplasty, and I am told that it can’t be fixed. I have to wear a splint on my nose for the rest of my life to support my nose. http://www.mynose.info

When people see my nose or hear my story, they ask if I am suing the doctor. You apparently have assumed I was threatening to sue the doctor, but when did I say that? Also, how would the next doctor know if I where suing the original doctor unless I told them? You have made more questions than you have answered by these assumptions. I might assume that you are a doctor.

I have had an infection from since the surgery, and I went to a new doctor last week. I told him that I was there about the infection. He wanted to know all about the splint on my nose, no matter that I gave a brief explanation, he wanted to know even more. Then he launched into a very boring long lecture and even though I tried to interrupt and get back to the infection, he wouldn’t stop until he was done. I don’t remember much of what he said, but I think it was intended to put me into a suggestible or altered state for some reason.

During his speech he repeatedly asked me what the name of the doctor who did the surgery, but I wouldn’t tell him. Based on past experience, this does not help my situation. I was not treated for the infection, and when I left I had a hostile feeling about the whole experience. (Was that the point?) I still sneeze blood from the nostril and experience pain and itching, as I have for several months.

Now about your “millionaire” statement. It is common, I have found, that victims of malpractice are confronted by people who think that the person is simply attempting to get rich, or get attention, or get some type of shallow, childish need met. These people, and I put you in that category, are simply out of touch, and do not want to consider that the patient is a victim. Instead of considering that the victim is simply trying to heal, you make insulting suggestions about our motives. It is easy for the person who doesn’t understand to say “Oh, they just want to get rich of it.” That is the propaganda that is currently being spread by Mr. Bush and the AMA. Luckily, I do not need your validation in order to feel my pain and look for a solution.