OPINIONIn the liability lottery, it's our patients who really loseAMA Leader Commentary. By J. Edward Hill, MD. Sept. 2, 2002. A message to all physicians from J. Edward Hill, MD, chair of the AMA Board of Trustees. In my home state of Mississippi, legalized gambling was introduced in 1992. The state now has 30 casinos, mostly along the Mississippi River and on our Gulf Coast. But there's another type of casino found throughout Mississippi. You won't find blackjack or slot machines there -- these casinos are in fact courtrooms that pay out in jackpot justice. The big winners are trial lawyers. The big losers are our patients. We do not take issue with compensation for lost wages, or out-of-pocket expenses -- or reasonable awards for pain and suffering. If there's been a wrong, we want it made right. But we take issue with a justice system that's turning -- without rhyme or reason -- into a lottery. In Mississippi, there have been $27 million in total awards just since January, including a recent one for $7 million -- that's $2 million over the physician's policy limit. It's no surprise that where once 14 liability carriers served physicians in Mississippi, now there's only one. Our doctors are voting with their feet. Because of steep insurance costs, there are only two neurosurgeons in the northern part of the state. The North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo, which serves 22 counties with 600,000 people, now finds it almost impossible to recruit doctors. And a group of 13 physicians planning to construct an office building in Natchez had second thoughts -- they're now looking at a site across the river in Louisiana, a state that has tort reforms such as a cap on noneconomic damages.
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