DOCTORS V. LAWYERS CONT. . . . . Thanks to all the readers who e-mailed links to newspaper articles about the medical-malpractice studies released this week. Though the studies are contradictory, there's plenty of evidence that lawyers aren't to blame for rising med-mal premiums and that damage caps are not effective. For a round-up of the studies and newspaper articles, see Medical News Today. The audio of Tuesday's NPR program about the studies is here (direct link to audio).
Don't forget that an insurance-industry magazine has reported that the med-mal insurance crisis has "subsided" for now, as I wrote on May 25. My collected posts about the med-mal insurance situation are in my "Tort Reform" and "Tort Reform 2" categories.
I've had something resembling an insider's view on this recently - my econ prof's wife is a surgeon. Yeah, we heard a LOT about the debate in econ class last semester, 'cause it directly impacts my prof's family's disposable income.
In my informal (read: statistically insignificant in the extreme, but great fun to hear about over lunch) sample, 100% of economists married to surgeons don't enjoy being overcharged to cover insurance companies' investment shortfalls.
Posted by: Tim | June 03, 2005 at 01:21 PM