Liability crisis at breaking point: Doctors wait for ray of hope

It's time for Congress to act on effective medical tort reform.

Editorial. Feb. 10, 2003.

Surgeons in Wheeling, W.Va., started their new year with 30-day leaves of absence to protest skyrocketing liability insurance premiums. Only a last-minute plea by Pennsylvania's governor kept dozens of physicians in Scranton from following their lead and closing up shop. At press time, New Jersey doctors were planning a partial work stoppage -- also over liability insurance rates.

These extreme protests came after rallies by physicians -- and patients -- swept across the country last year, warning of trouble ahead.

Physicians did not take these actions lightly. They were prompted by crises in care, as they watched colleagues flee states, retire early, stop offering high-risk services or take severe measures to cut practice costs.

For example, the Wheeling surgeons took their leaves after the area lost its only three neurosurgeons and one-third of its general surgeons.

Forty-four percent of physician practices responding to a Medical Society of New Jersey poll reported that out-of-control premiums hurt the quality of their medical services because they had to defer equipment purchases, cut certain services or lay off staff.

Physicians simply can't handle the massive liability premium increases insurers have been imposing in states without effective tort reform. In Pennsylvania alone, major carriers' rates jumped as much as 147% between 1997 and 2001. That spike was followed by 50% increases in 2002 and this year, according to the Pennsylvania Medical Society.