| WASHINGTON,
D.C. – U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), a member of the Energy
and Commerce Committee, today said that doctors in Illinois misdiagnosed
the medical malpractice insurance crisis. Schakowsky pointed to an
Americans for Insurance Reform study which found that insurance companies,
not lawsuits, are causing malpractice insurance rates to rise for Illinois
doctors.
“Attacking
the civil justice system and taking away the rights of injured consumers
in the name of reform will not lower health care costs for patients or
insurance rates for doctors. Doctors in Springfield today should
be demanding regulation of the insurance industry because the evidence
is clear: medical malpractice payouts have absolutely nothing to do with
their premiums,” Schakowsky said.
“Doctors
should also be aggressively treating the epidemic of medical errors that
kill up to 98,000 hospital patients each year. These steps will bring
real reform to our medical malpractice system,” Schakowsky added.
According
to the study released earlier this week, since 1991, in Illinois, jury
awards and settlements have actually fallen when adjusted for medical inflation,
and “…[t]he real reason medical malpractice insurance rates have fluctuated
so dramatically in Illinois is market forces - not, as the insurance industry
claims, because of a sudden massive increase in medical malpractice jury
awards or payouts, which, in constant dollars, have been decreasing for
the last decade.” |
