Medical Crisis? No, Ethical Crisis

The American Medical Association is selling the public and doctors on a phony crisis. According to the A.M.A, 20 state are in a “liability crisis” that is forcing physicians to relocate and causing people to lose medical care. True? Not really. The truth is that things are a lot better than this.

Bob Herbert writes in The New York Times:

The General Accounting Office "investigated the situations in five states with reported access problems and found mixed evidence. On the one hand, G.A.O. confirmed instances of reduced access to emergency surgery and newborn delivery, albeit `in scattered, often rural, areas where providers identified other long-standing factors that affect the availability of services.' On the other hand, it found that many reported reductions in supply by health care providers could not be substantiated or `did not widely affect access to health care.' "

One of the [crisis states, according to the A.M.A] is Missouri. But a press release in April from the Missouri Department of Insurance said, "Missouri medical malpractice claims, filed and paid, fell to all-time lows in 2003 while insurers enjoyed a cash-flow windfall." Another ... is New Jersey. Earlier this month, over the furious objections of physicians' representatives, a judge ordered the release of data showing how much was being paid out to satisfy malpractice claims. ... The [Bergen Record] reported that an analysis of the data showed that malpractice payments in New Jersey had declined by 21 percent from 2001 to 2003. But malpractice insurance premiums surged over the same period.

Last summer a legislative committee in Florida [another crisis state] ... put insurance executives, lawyers and medical lobbyists under oath in an effort to get to the truth about malpractice costs. When questions about frivolous lawsuits arose, Sandra Mortham, the chief executive of the Florida Medical Association, told the panel, "I don't feel that I have the information to say whether or not there are frivolous lawsuits in the state of Florida."

What appears to be going on is that insurance companies have lost a lot of money in the stock market but, since the amount that they have to pay in malpractice claims hasn’t gone down by a similar amount, they have had to raise premiums. Doctors are understandably upset but instead of telling the truth about what is going on, insurance companies have told doctors and the A.M.A. that the blame lies with patients who receive compensation when they are harmed.

This is unethical, but perhaps not surprising. What is truly disgraceful is that the A.M.A. and the doctors have just gone along with this little charade and have been trying to convince the public that their phony “crisis” threatens the health care of everyone. The real threat seems to lie in accepting these people at their word and imposing limits on damages which will only serve to harm the people who have already been hurt the most.

Read More:

• Guide to Ethics and Morality
• News About Ethics
• Bioethics