Three crisis states show improvement since tort reform

The steady progress toward stabilizing or reducing liability insurance rates has been, in one supporter's words, like "taking an aspirin for bringing a fever down."

By Mike Norbut, AMNews staff. March 28, 2005.

Physicians aren't ready to celebrate just yet, but tort reform efforts are showing signs of positive effects in Texas, West Virginia and Ohio -- states that enacted legislation in 2003.

From lower liability insurance premiums -- or less dramatic premium increases -- to more insurers entering the market, doctors are starting to see at least some of the results they hoped for when they pushed for change in their respective states.

In Texas, for example, every insurer but one has lowered liability premiums in 2005, and the last one soon could follow suit, said Texas Medical Assn. President Bohn D. Allen, MD. Meanwhile, West Virginia has seen an increase in new physicians and a decline in defense costs for liability insurance companies, and Ohio has seen a moderation of premium increases and two new insurers enter the market.

The states are three of 20 the AMA has declared to be in crisis because of rising medical liability insurance premiums. In those states, some physicians were retiring early, others were forced to discontinue high-risk procedures or move to states not in crisis.

Waiting for the effects of the various state measures, all enacted in 2003, has been an exercise in patience for doctors. Progress has been gradual, but the signs of what's to come are encouraging.

"I liken this with taking an aspirin for bringing a fever down," said Evan Jenkins, executive director of the West Virginia State Medical Assn. and a state senator. "Trial lawyers want you to think when you take the medicine, you'll see the effects immediately, but it takes a little time."