Drs Urge State Legislative Leaders to Avert Healthcare Crisis

LAKE SUCCESS, NY (08/15/2008)(readMedia)-- Faced with crushing increases in liability premiums, New York doctors today called on state leaders "to take any and all actions necessary to prevent the imposition of any further medical liability insurance rate increases on NY's hospitals and doctors." The physicians, many of whom are already paying hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for insurance, could soon be slammed with up to 30% more cost in insurance premiums.

Michael Rosenberg, MD, President of the Medical Society of the State of New York, the state's largest physician organization, stated today that the Medical Society is requesting Governor David Paterson, Majority Leader Dean Skelos and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to immediately address "the problem of ever escalating liability insurance costs, which is destroying physician practices across NY and threatening the financial infrastructure of our state's health care institutions."

Superintendent of Insurance Eric Dinallo temporarily held off imposing a rate increase in July to give some time to the Legislature and the Governor to enact legislation that would hold off the need for additional exorbitant rate increases. In the absence of legislative action, it will be necessary to increase physicians' liability premiums by 11% for one insurance company and by 30% for another. This would be on top of the 55-80% premium rate increases already imposed over the last five years, bringing annual insurance premiums for many physicians to levels in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The high cost of obstetrical liability and its effect on women's health care is well known, but many of our other vitally important specialties - anesthesia, orthopedics, general surgery, emergency medicine and many others - are also seriously threatened by the spiraling costs of insuring against the virtually limitless risk of being held liable for adverse outcomes regardless of whether there was any physician negligence. NY's truly magnificent hospitals are also being crushed by the cost of protecting against liability. "The recent closing of an obstetrical ward at one of our hospitals may be the first symptom of this disease, and we need to institute treatment immediately," said Dr. Rosenberg.

Dr. Rosenberg stated, "It is both necessary and appropriate that the process of fundamentally reforming NY's prohibitively expensive medical liability system begin at a special session called by the Governor to address New York's financial crisis."

Noting that our state's soaring health care costs are a significant part of the current fiscal crisis Dr Rosenberg said, "No health care cost control efforts can hope to succeed unless they address the cancerous medical liability system that is taking billions of dollars away from our health care delivery system. This cancer is rapidly destroying access to health care for many, many New Yorkers."

Founded in 1807, the Medical Society of the State of New York represents over 25,000 physicians, residents and medical students.