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November 11, 2007
New York Forced to Choose between Doctors and Lawyers
Predictably, New York State's socialist approach to the malpractice insurance crisis is not working.
Thanks to pathologically greedy ambulance chasers like John Edwards, doctors carry a crippling burden. Malpractice insurance costs run into six figures. Yet even at these prices, insurance providers cannot break even, due to the stratospheric amounts of loot lawyers have been expropriating from the medical profession.
One medical malpractice carrier faces a $500 million deficit. To cover it would require raising rates that are already extremely excessive by $50,000 a year, thus driving out of the state any doctor who could find work elsewhere.
Last July state Superintendent Eric Dinallo raised rates by 14%, half of what one carrier said it needed to break even. At the time he announced:
After years of failing to confront the fundamental problems that have led to this current environment, we have inherited the worst of both worlds: physicians who cannot afford to practice medicine, and insurers whose financial condition is rapidly eroding.
The corrupt tort system imposed by Democrats, who are largely financed by trial lawyers, is only the most obvious reason. Another is government involvement in malpractice insurance. New York bureaucrats actually looted $700 million from an state-controlled insurance company to close budget gaps in the early to mid-1990s.
The Democrat solution? Keep up the extravagant lawsuits, and socialize medicine. When these insane policies have driven American doctors into extinction, we can take the British approach and import Muslim doctors — which of course will lead to even more problems.
On a tip from Wiggins.
Posted by Van Helsing at November 11, 2007 12:14 PM
Comments
Thought for sure you'd make reference to that old joke:
Do you know why New York City got all the lawyers,
San Francisco got all the hippies,
and New Jersey got all the toxic waste dumps?
New Jersey got first pick!
Posted by: Proof at November 11, 2007 2:35 PM
New York bureaucrats actually looted $700 from an state-controlled insurance company to close budget gaps in the early to mid-1990s.
$700? I don't think that's going to bankrupt much of anyone. Are you sure that's not a typo?
Posted by: Rob Banks at November 11, 2007 2:42 PM
Thanks Rob. I left out the million.
Posted by: Van Helsing at November 11, 2007 5:37 PM
