Doc Quits! $160,000 Per Year Malpractice Costs the Cause

27 Oct, 2009 by Warner Todd Huston

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Doctor Jacquelline Perlman has had it. After a 12-year career as an OB-GYN doctor she his quitting her practice. One of the major reasons is the exorbitant costs of malpractice insurance.

“I’ve decided to retire from obstetrics,” said Perlman, 42. “It breaks my heart. Malpractice costs are a big part of it. It’s a very sad story.”

Last spring her insurer dropped her and several of her fellow doctors because of the high risk of covering OB-GYNs. Dr. Perlman’s new insurer was to charge $160,000 a year for coverage and that proved too much for Perlman to take.

Perlman noted that over the last five years, as her insurance costs multiplied, her actual income dropped by 20 percent.

So, another good doctor — one that has never had a malpractice case stick to her — leaves the profession. Now, before some of you out there assume the insurance companies is the villain here, let us pinpoint the real villain: trial lawyers.

It is the nuisance lawsuits, those filed merely to harass doctors in order to get a quick settlement, and lawyers that game the system with nonsense lawsuits as well as clients looking for a lottery-like payout that will make them instant millionaires that cause this problem.

One of the most important aspects of what should be a true reform to our system of medicine would be a policy that would curtail these out-of-control, greedy lawyers. Naturally, tort reform and trial lawyers are coming up as a protected class in Obamacare. And why is that? Because trial lawyers gave Obama a ton of cash for his campaign, that’s why.

This proves that Obamacare is not about “reform,” nor about improving our medical system. It is first and foremost about political payoffs. Obama is shameless in his political payoffs and this one is particularly stark.

In the meantime, as Obamacare takes its baby steps toward final passage, more great docs like Mrs. Perlman will quit the business.

Obama keeps pretending that we will be “allowed” to “keep our doctors if we like them.” But as each day passes we are finding more and more reasons why many of us will lose our favorite doctors whether we like them or not.