New Legislation in Georgia to Put Cap on Pain and Suffering Awards
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Imagine going to your doctor and she tells you she's going out of business because she just can't afford skyrocketing malpractice insurance rates. In some states, those rates have jumped by 100 to 200 percent. It is happening all over America. A new Georgia study says more than 600 doctors are moving out of state because they can't afford to do business here. Nearly 3,000 doctors are not performing high risk surgeries and one in three OB-GYNs will stop delivering babies. This is such a problem President Bush tackled it in his State of the Union address. And today there is new legislation here in Georgia to put a $250,000 cap on pain and suffering awards. It is a hot topic of debate. And joining us to talk about this medical crisis is Dr. Tasneem Haque, an emergency room pediatrician, and George Russell of Mag Mutual Insurance. Welcome to you both.</s>GEORGE RUSSELL, MAG MUTUAL: Thank you.</s>DR. TASNEEM HAQUE, EMERGENCY ROOM PEDIATRICIAN: Thank you.</s>COSTELLO: Dr. Tasneem, I want to start with you because I don't think people realize just how much you pay in insurance rates every year in Georgia.</s>HAQUE: Definitely. Realize that malpractice premiums vary depending on state and they also vary depending on the specialty. But it can range from anywhere from $10,000 to $200,000 a year, depending on what you're doing.</s>COSTELLO: Two hundred thousand dollars a year for medical malpractice insurance?</s>HAQUE: Two hundred thousand dollars a year for medical malpractice insurance.</s>COSTELLO: Now, a lot of people will say oh, but doctors make so much money.</s>HAQUE: Well, we make money, that's true. But we're also, we also have to run a business. And if we're paying $200,000 a year with malpractice, that leaves a very little margin to cover your basic expenses, to cover your overhead, to pay your staff and to do everything else that you need to do to run a viable practice.</s>COSTELLO: And as a young doctor just starting out like you are...</s>HAQUE: Right.</s>COSTELLO: ... I mean you don't make much money. You've got huge bills from school and all the rest of the bills you have to pay.</s>TASNEEM: Exactly. Exactly. It's actually very frustrating for my entire generation of physicians coming out because we went through school, we put our lives on hold, we now have, we put families on hold and we're coming out with huge medical loans and faced with huge medical malpractice premiums, as well. So it's a very difficult situation for those of us that are younger. Some of the older physicians are having trouble, as well, but they've been around when they didn't have to pay these premiums. So I don't think people realize that it's really, really putting the younger generation of physicians, really stretching us out.</s>COSTELLO: I understand. I want to talk to the insurance man right now. George, why are insurance premiums so horribly high?</s>RUSSELL: One reason and one reason only, and that's large losses. In the last three years, the number of losses over a million dollars and over two million dollars have skyrocketed around the country. And that and that alone is what's driving these increasing premiums. Mag Mutual is a company owned by the physicians of Georgia, so our sole objective is to keep premiums as low as possible. At the end of the year, we hope to produce dividends or reduce the rates, but this year we're going to produce a $10 million loss. And this is for the company that's owned by the physicians of Georgia.</s>COSTELLO: Well, you know, a lot of people out in the audience are probably saying insurance companies, don't trust 'em, you know, they kind of rape the people. And, you know, if you look at insurance premiums over the years in Georgia, they didn't just double. In some cases they tripled from year to year.</s>RUSSELL: Absolutely. Well, what distinguishes us...</s>COSTELLO: Aren't insurance reforms in the making, too, in all of this?</s>RUSSELL: Yes. Insurance reforms are critical to the problem. But Mag Mutual unlike most stock insurance companies, like St. Paul and 25 others that have exited the business completely, is owned by the physicians of Georgia. So we're not typical -- we're not the typical insurance company. We're really there for our physicians, owned by our physicians, trying to keep premiums as low as possible. What's happened in the last three years is premiums for our Georgia physicians have increased 50 percent. And in many states, it's a hundred or two hundred percent.</s>COSTELLO: Got you. And the best idea out there, doctor, in your view, is to put a cap on punitive damages that juries award?</s>TASNEEM: Absolutely. If there is going to be a solution to this problem, we have to look at the states that have been successful. And the states that have been successful have put a cap on the pain and suffering award that juries give out. And that way they've been able to gradually lower premiums and doctors have been able to stay in business. If you want to look at states like California, where this has already been done and they have some history behind them and they've actually been pretty successful with the process.</s>COSTELLO: Thanks to you both for coming in this morning. We could debate this topic all morning long.</s>TASNEEM: Exactly. Thanks.</s>COSTELLO: I wish we could. Thanks to both of you.</s>RUSSELL: Thank you very much.</s>TASNEEM: Thank you. Suffering Awards>