Jefferson Review

"Your Liberty is Our Interest"

Home /  Archives / Links / Quotes / Book Reviews / Advertise /Contact us / Subscribe / Calendar

Report: Med-mal crisis hurts Kentucky

(Louisville, Kentucky) – Kentucky’s medical-malpractice dilemma is driving up health-care costs and forcing physicians to flee the Commonwealth. Expenditures related to medical malpractice have risen by a factor of 23 during the last 30 years and now soak every American for nearly $100 a year.

Medical malpractice law “is in a state of national crisis,” writes George Mason University law professor Michael Krauss in a new Bluegrass Institute  report entitled “Medical malpractice reform: Preparing for tort reform in Kentucky.”

Krauss debunks many of the flawed explanations for Kentucky’s medical-malpractice predicament and offers solutions to fix this unsustainable part of the commonwealth’s tort system.

For example, Krauss shows that increases in medical-malpractice insurance premiums are not the result of “gouging” by insurers – a favorite claim of groups like Public Citizen. He also reports that physicians, in fact, have not paid “too little” in malpractice-insurance premiums.

Perhaps most importantly, Krauss shows that the number of practicing obstetricians in Kentucky has fallen dramatically. He also explains why the state’s active physician population may be smaller than it appears.

“Medical-malpractice reform should be a top priority of lawmakers during the next legislative session,” said Chris Derry, president of the Bluegrass Institute, Kentucky’s free-market think tank. “This report gives lawmakers the direction they need to enact healthy policy and convince badly-needed physicians – specialists in particular – to return to our state.”
 

Weather (Louisville) / Mapquest /  White Pages / Business Search / CNN / Dictionary / E-card / MSN