Malpractice insurance companies have been charging doctors more even though the amount they have been paying out in claims has been falling. Nevertheless, last year the legislature approved legislation limiting compensation to victims of medical malpractice, but failed to do anything to limit the amount malpractice insurers could change.
A report documenting the performance of the malpractice insurance industry entitled “Falling Claims and Rising Premiums in the Medical Malpractice Insurance Industry,” researched and written by former Missouri insurance commissioner Jay Angoff and released by the Center for Justice and Democracy, is available at www.centerjd.org. That report analyzed the claims payments and premiums collected by the 15 largest malpractice carriers increased their premiums by more than 120 percent between 2000 and 2004, their claims payment actually declined in real terms during that period.
Perhaps the Missouri legislature should have read this report—which is based on the data the insurance companies themselves report to state departments of insurance—before enacting the legislation limiting compensation to injury victims they enacted last year.
