Unfortunately, we have all seen the effects from the Walter Reed Medical Center shenanigans–a direct product of corporate takeover.

For a short time, you can read the White Paper here, but read it fast because it will be available to “Members Only’ soon.

Read the full story.

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Two recent reports make clear that, regardless of the cause, both doctor’s insurance premiums and the number of lawsuits have gone down. A recent report by the Connecticut State Department of Insurance released in April 2007, reported that premiums for the top five medical malpractice insurers as declining by 10% from 2005 to 2006.  Last week, the Connecticut Judicial Branch released its annual assessment of all cases and case types filed and disposed contains data for the years 1990 through 2007.  The average number of medical malpractice case filed in the six years preceding the passage of the 2005 reforms was 378. The average number of cases filed between 2005 and 2007 was 306, after the legislation had passed, with only 288 cases filed during the most recent period 2006-2007.

On June 14, 2005, the Hartford Courant described this measure as taking “…reasonable steps that should become law.” Whether the new law was necessary or helped address a real problem, these recent reports make clear that the situation in Connecticut has improved dramatically.

Additional provisions in the 2005 Act directs judges to review jury awards above $1 million to determine if they are excessive, directs the Department of Public Health to establish guidelines for disciplining incompetent doctors and requires the Department of Insurance to approve rate increases greater than 7.5 percent with a provision allowing for any affected parties to request a public hearing to challenge the proposed rate increase.

Read the full story here (pdf). 

Read CTLA’s study of the report by Neil Vidmar, Ph.D.

Read the actual report from the Department of Insurance

See the vote tally after the jump.

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For decades, our military members have been barred from suing for medical malpractice and other forms of negligence by the government. Whether it is a military doctor cutting off the wrong leg or a military gasoline station cutting a brake line, military personnel are not allowed to seek legal relief as other citizens can. The result is that they are victims of grotesque forms of negligence that have not been widely seen in the civilian world for more than a hundred years. In the civilian system, the threat of lawsuit serves a critical deterrence of negligence by the government, companies and others.

Rell chose Thomas R. Sullivan of Southington, a senior vice president of The Hartford’s subsidiary Specialty Risk Services LLC, who has more than 20 years’ experience in the property-casualty insurance business.

Sullivan, 45, expects to start as insurance commissioner April 20, and his nomination is subject to legislative confirmation.

While it isn’t rare to look inside the insurance industry for this position, some folks seem worried about the protections of consumers.

“We believe this appointment is in the long tradition of appointing industry people to regulate themselves, and we’re disappointed,” said Phil Sherwood, legislative director for the Connecticut Citizen Action Group.

“It’s just a further testament to why we need to have an elected commissioner of insurance or create an independent consumer counsel to ensure consumers’ interests are represented.”

Beverly Brakeman, director of the labor-community coalition Citizens for Economic Opportunity, said it’s good for a commissioner to have experience, but “without a proven commitment to consumers, there’s a real gap there.”

Read the full article. 

Then as now, insurance, business, medical and manufacturing interests clamored for limitations on lawsuits and damages. Certain elements in government and a lazy press picked up on these claims, fueling the controversy by publishing highly selective and misleading accounts of large verdicts that seemed to lend truth to the criticisms.

Times have hardly changed.

If tort reformers would just admit that their current agenda is an effort to assist the insurance industry in managing its own risks, it just might be less offensive. But that candor could cause a further negative impact on the industry’s reputation, if that’s possible. The general public would tend to look with even more suspicion on an industry that purports to manage everyone else’s risk when it can’t even manage its own.

Now, as then, the industry with the problem isn’t the medical community, nor is it the law. Again, it’s the insurance industry, and again the problem has been self-inflicted. It’s certainly apparent, though, that the doctors are salivating over the fact that limiting verdicts and other tort reforms may greatly diminish their chances of being sued. Of course, it certainly won’t help those they’ve grievously harmed.

“Lawmakers could do more to reduce premiums by improving the structure of the insurance marketplace, said Frank A. Sloan, an economics professor at Duke University who specializes in health policy and management. Medical malpractice “…is the most cyclical health policy there is,” Professor Sloan said, adding, “There are periods of time when premiums stop going up, and then nobody’s interested, then again we get a crisis and everybody says juries are terrible.” Richard A. Oppel Jr., New York Times, 1/17/03

This is the fourth “crisis” in thirty years. Again, there are the frenetic calls for tort reform. When will proponents and their legislative allies grow tired of this charade? Anytime soon is doubtful.

So if tort reform passes, who benefits? Certainly not the doctors. They may be lucky to see a temporary fluctuation in their rates. Now, as then, the insurance industry will clearly be the biggest beneficiary.

This nationwide campaign was carefully orchestrated with the doctors out front. I suspect that the insurance industry mesmerized the doctors with the promise of immunity. Why else would these caregivers use scare tactics against the public? They succeeded in passing tort reform in several states, but as we have seen the doctors did not benefit.

While I won’t doubt the existence of fraudulent workers’ compensation claims, it is ridiculous to even look at this woman when you compare her to how Allstate and State Farm have defrauded so many policy owners all over the country–especially in the horrid aftermath of hurricane Katrina.

Or, you could also look at how Allstate and State Farm use improper practices to make sure that soft-tissue accident claims never see the light of day.

Honestly, the list goes on and on.

At least one television station got it right in Albuquerque this week.