August 21, 2009

[Cross-posted from Overlawyered]:

Longtime reader P.W. writes:

I've been biting my fist while I read the recent series of guest posts on tort reform and medicine on andrewsullivan.com, such as this one. Lots of readers breezily asserting that there's no problem, pretty much a fact-free debate. I've emailed them myself, but no luck so far....

P.P.S. Sullivan's guestblogger Patrick Appel has now posted good emails from one reader dismantling some of the trial bar talking points that had figured prominently in earlier posts:

Easily disprovable lie #1: Texas malpractice insurance rates have declined every year since tort reform was enacted. Here's a link to TMLT, the largest insurer in Texas...

[#3:] ...the inflation-adjusted decrease in overall indemnity payments is due precisely to tort reform, primarily in the country's largest economy, California, where MICRA was established in 1974. In non-tort reform states, indemnity payments have steadily increased. In Illinois, which only adopted tort reform in 2007, the average (pdf, page 15) indemnity payment increased from $70,000 in 1980 to $630,000 in 2008. If you adjust for inflation, those 1980 dollars would only be $182,943.81 in 2009. Clearly, this is not a decrease. ...