Malpractice insurance premiums are soaring in last two years. It has crossed the limit where doctors can not afford a single penny more since their income from the practices are reduced noticeably due to increasing economical downturn, cut down in insurance payment for services rendered to patients from major insurance companies and from Medicare, steadily increasing practice management cost, Unwanted and unexpected malpractice claims filed by patients etc. Now most doctors are aware of the danger of rising malpractice premium, which is even forcing them to abandon years old practices to look for new jobs or business opportunities. During last two months, every day we are hearing about doctors' boycott from hospitals and outpatient clinics to protest against Malpractice insurance companies and their policies. Doctors are called for big rallies in many state capitals to express dissatisfaction against sky rocketing malpractice insurance premiums and demands for full tort reform of malpractice insurance legislations.

Malpractice insurance companies are either reluctant to renew insurance for doctors or increasing premium to 79 %, some case it is 100% yearly. For example, a doctor who practice Gynecology and Obstetrics is paying $30000 to $100000, a neurosurgeon is paying about $100000 to $200000 per year to protect themselves from unexpected medical suits filed by patients. This amount almost equal to 20 % to 30 % of what they are earning yearly after meeting all practice related management costs, which is anticipated to double in near future. Please note that this amount is coming directly from their pocket and also it is in addition to other management costs like employee salaries, supplies and more. Doctors says they simply can not afford recent big hike in insurance premium, so in few months most doctors would have to come out of malpractice insurance which is one of the requirements for getting hospital privilege to consult inpatients. Surgeons are refusing to operate or Obstetricians are quitting altogether. None of the hospitals will hire doctors without malpractice coverage. We are going to see a new recession in medical field, if situation continue. I am foreseeing this because each physician practice needs minimum three employees and thousands of dollars of medical supplies. Doctors who quit from practice may create another big unemployment situation as well as decrease in sales of medical supplies which will create a lay off situation among medical manufacturing companies. Most doctors are working about 60 to 80 hours per week and spending most of the nights with patients or inside the operating theater for surgery. Some doctors are working 24 hours on call to give medical care to patients making them always under constant pressure of duty. Some doctors say, they are in a difficult situation to meet the both ends, some are thinking to quit practice for ever. According to them, reason for this situation is, strict regulation by Federal Government on medical practices costing them in reduced income and increased overhead expenses. Medical practices are forced to hire more skilled employees than ever. Medicare and other insurances are cutting down 3 to 4% of service charges for each procedure every year and collection rate from insurance companies fall in 50% to 70 % of billed amount. Also medical practice overhead expense is 60% to 65 %. Let us say, if a physician bill is $100, at the end physician would get only $15 to $20 per patient. To get this payment physician might have to wait for two to three months in some cases. Doctors are saying, payment from insurance companies is very time consuming and in most cases their first intention is to find a way to prevent or reject payment even for genuine insurance claim for a simple reason.

Why is malpractice insurance premium sky rocketing? (Same situation exist in medical and auto insurance too. There are so many Americans living without medical insurance. They just can not afford costly monthly premium). One prominent reason is steady increase of filing of malpractice suits against doctors. Some cases are very genuine and eligible for claim success and payment. But 90 % of malpractice cases are either unethical or raised from simple reasons because of nexus between lawyers and patients or patient relatives (in case where patient is dead). Someone tells me, there are employees who are secretly working for lawyers to look for new victims. This is a very lucrative business since malpractice indemnities are very high in some claims (It can vary from $50000 to $3000000 from malpractice settlements depending on complexity of case). In most situations, physicians and insurance companies are the losers. Even during the present economical down turn, 99% of insurance companies (most of them are multi-billion and multi-national) are making good profit regardless of whether medical, auto or life insurance. They believed the mid 1990’s boom, which fattened their stock portfolios, would last for ever. So they slashed premiums to buy market share. Now that their investments have soared, they want to recover their losses with sky high premium. Owners and CEOs of insurance companies are making millions or even billions per year by emptying physician's pockets. They have their own Washington based lobbying firms to create or divert legislations favorable to them, especially since most of the congress men are lawyers. Insurance companies are making profit even at this worst economical situation while hospitals and physicians are loosing income from practice, forcing them to shut down their practice for ever.