Over and over, we've heard doctors threaten to leave Pennsylvania because of high malpractice insurance premiums. But more than a year after many physicians threatened to close their doors, their offices remain open and many have even welcomed new members into their practices. (See letter to the editor) 

Medical licensures in the state have increased every year since 1995 (See Public Citizen report), and the state's MCARE Fund says there were 1,000 more doctors

practicing in Pennsylvania at the end of 2002 than there were in 2000. (See article)

In a scathing October 2003 expose on doctors failing to make good on their threats to leave, The Sunday Times of Scranton - a year after more than 40 Lackawanna County physicians threatened to leave - found that all of them were continuing to provide many of the same services they had for decades, and at least two large practices had welcomed new members. (See article)

In September 2003, the nonpartisan independent General Accounting Office examined five states labeled "in crisis" by the American Medical Association, including Pennsylvania, and found that claims of a doctor "exodus" and limited access to health care had been vastly exaggerated for political purposes. (See report)

Through polling and focus groups, the medical lobby has decided that the best way to get Pennsylvanians to give up their Constitutional right to have a jury decide what's fair is to scare them into believing that their doctors are leaving. As the documents cited above - and many more - clearly show, the claims of a doctor "exodus" in Pennsylvania are nothing more than a political ploy.

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