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The Malpractice Crisis Becomes a Public Health Crisis

Arch Intern Med. 2004;164:2195-2196.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

The financial impact of the rise in professional liability insurance (PLI) premiums has been widely recognized, and improving the cost and quality of health care has been the focus of government reports¹ and policy recommendations. Although affordability of a service is a key predictor of its availability, the malpractice crisis has not been widely recognized as a public health issue. Brooks and colleagues² make clear that, as a result of the liability crisis, access to care is declining significantly, and that effect is marked, especially in vulnerable populations where access is already problematic. The health care system of rural Florida is the particular canary in the coal mine that they have studied to examine the noxious effect on access caused by skyrocketing liability premiums.

For several years, states that have failed to adopt substantial tort reform with caps on noneconomic damages have witnessed drastic increases in PLI premiums and diminished . . . [Full Text of this Article]

AUTHOR INFORMATION
James Schroeder, MD

RELATED ARTICLE

Impact of the Medical Professional Liability Insurance Crisis on Access to Care in Florida
Robert G. Brooks, Nir Menachemi, Cathy Hughes, and Art Clawson
Arch Intern Med. 2004;164(20):2217-2222.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT