Texas tort reform

June 17, 2007

How it affected four people: a physician, a plaintiff’s lawyer, a grieving family, and a grateful patient. Here is the physician’s perspective:

Dr. Altstatt ““ who’s 38, a native of Tennessee, a graduate of Pennsylvania State University and a father of two ““ considered job offers from Pennsylvania to Mississippi after finishing his residency.

The fact that Brownwood, population 19,000, is small was a plus, he said. The doctor grew up in a town of 500.

But as a businessman, he also didn’t ignore the bottom line.

For one thing, the Brownwood job offered a salary 13 percent higher than the one in Mississippi.

Second, Dr. Altstatt said, he would have paid $60,000 in yearly malpractice insurance in Mississippi, which has a $500,000 cap on noneconomic damages. In Texas, he expects to pay less than $2,000 this year.



Related posts:

  1. Texas tort reform
  2. Tort reform working in Texas
  3. Tort reform in Texas: Working better than expected
  4. Texas tort reform a "national success story"
  5. The success of tort reform
  6. Another tort reform success story
  7. Mississippi: What happened after tort reform


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