Insurance Rates may be Culprit in Lack of Obstetrics Access in Ohio
Five years ago a law was put in effect to reduce the malpractice rates in Ohio. The 2003 law capped most jury awards for pain and suffering to $350,000, but allowed up to $1 million in cases with multiple victims and injuries considered catastrophic. One would think with caps in place Ohio would have a higher population of doctors who deliver babies, more specifically obstetricians. That has not been proven the case. In fact, there is a 5 percent decrease from 2002 of the number of obstetricians and gynecologists Ohio has listed. Supporters of the malpractice caps, such as the Ohio State Medical Association, say insurance rate are still too high for obstetricians and other high-risk medical specialties. Opponents of caps, such as the Ohio Association for Justice, which represents trial lawyers, say if the limits worked the state would have more doctors delivering babies, not fewer. The opponents believe insurance rates were increasing not because of jury awards but because insurance companies were raising prices to make up for stock market losses. The insurance rates grew an average of 31 percent in 2002, but began to slow from 2005 to 2007. Even with the decline, doctors in high-risk areas such as obstetrics are still paying tens of thousands of dollars a year in insurance premiums. On average, obstetricians in Ohio paid about four times the rate of doctors in internal medicine in 2007. It would appear patients’ lack of access to high-risk medical specialists, including obstetricians, can be attributed to excessive insurance rates and not medical malpractice lawsuits.
