Business Insurance
Q. What should be the government's role to ensure healthcare coverage and keep cost increases down?
Dr. Richard E. Anderson's comments published in Business Insurance, June 23, 2003.
Government’s role should be to ensure that patients who are injured are compensated fairly for their losses, but in a way that doesn’t endanger access to care for the rest of the population. That means creating an environment in which a handful of cases won’t elevate the risk to a level that premiums become so unaffordable that physicians, particularly in high-risk practices, are forced to stop practicing medicine or leave their state of practice.
In California, we have laws that include a $250,000 cap on non-economic damages and that ultimately helps patients receive their money faster through fair settlements. The injured parties - rather than the attorneys - also get to keep a greater share of the award.
California’s laws do more than help injured patients receive fair compensation for their injuries; they keep malpractice insurance premiums among the lowest in the nation. They also help all patients by lowering the state’s annual health care costs by an estimated $6 billion. That translates into lower health insurance premiums for employers, accessible inner-city clinics, and a greater availability of services for patients who receive care through Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program.
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