“Canada keeps malpractice cost in check”
Of course, Florida, like Canada, already has non-economic damage caps, as well as limits on attorney’s fees, limits on punitive damages, limits on joint and several liability, and an exemption to the collateral source rule for medmal cases.
They drank the tort reform kool-aid and got nothing for it, as premiums are still that high. Compounding the injustice, Florida permits doctors to be uninsured, which rewards irresponsible doctors and punishes blameless patients.
Max,
What is your point? Unless you think that medical malpractice insurers are somehow knocking down 90% profit margins in Florida, neurosurgeons in Florida are committing ten times the malpractice of their Canadian peers or else the changes in Florida law that you refer to are minimal in their impact.
My guess would be that the use of judges to try cases combined with the endless discovery process of American tort cases play much more of a role than loser pays in this difference, but this incredible spread clearly calls out for a serious study by individuals without an ax to grind in this matter.
You wrote, “this incredible spread clearly calls out for a serious study by individuals without an ax to grind in this matter.”
That’s my “point.” As it pertains to all of the typical tort reform suggestions — caps, joint and several, fee limits, punitives, etc — there really isn’t much difference between Canada and Florida, yet the same neurosurgeon in Florida pays ~10x for worse coverage (note that the Canadians have largely unlimited coverage, whereas most American coverage stops around $1-1.5m).
Why is that? I think one place to start is how Canadian follows the socialist principle of spreading risk as widely as possible, and uses a de facto single-payer system that all physicians join, with minimal disparity between the rates they pay.
My “point” is that, despite endless promises from insurance companies, drastic tort reform in Florida brought almost no relief to physicians. I suggest that’s because the root cause of these fees is something other than noneconomic damages, or joint and several liability, or punitives, etc. You’re free to argue the opposite, in spite of the Canada/Florida data.
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