From California Healthline,
Monday, January 13, 2003
Physicians, Insurers 'Misleading' Public, Consumer Groups Say
A coalition of consumer groups is claiming that physicians and
insurance companies are "purposely misleading" the public about the
malpractice insurance "crisis" to "convince Congress and state
legislatures to enact caps on damage awards," CongressDaily reports.
During a news briefing Thursday, Joan Claybrook, president of Public
Citizen, said, "Malpractice premiums are rising as a result of a
business cycle wholly unrelated to tort claims." Claybrook added that
claims "have not skyrocketed, nor have average award amounts."
Instead
of "blaming] the economy," physicians have "declared war on the
patients they took an oath to protect," she said. Read her statement:
http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=1297
Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen's Public Health Research
Group, added that the "real malpractice crisis" is physicians'
"failure to police themselves."
Read his
statement:
http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=1298
Arthur Levin of the Center for Medical Consumers said, "The AMA's
depiction of the 'crisis' -- one focused on malpractice insurance
premiums -- conveniently serves to distract everyone from the reality
that it is organized medicine that continues to vigorously oppose a
series of Institute of Medicine recommendations aimed at reducing the
number of medical errors." Levin was a member of the IOM commission
that made the recommendations. Center for Medical Consumer's report
on Malpractice:
http://www.medicalconsumers.org/pages/FIRST%20DO%20NO%20HARM.pdf
CongressDaily reports that the consumer groups said capping damage
awards "probably will not reduce premiums" (Rovner, Congress Daily,
1/10).