Confronted with yet another erroneous listing, Baver Rovito admitted,
"I simply don't have the resources to personally check out each
piece of information which is e-mailed to me."
Despite the fact that no one checks to make sure that the claims are
correct, the doctors and others who want to restrict an injured parties'
ability to collect fair compensation for their injuries continue to cite
them anyway.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time that a claim central to the
doctors' argument that caps are needed has been based on unverified
anecdotes rather than hard data. Nor is it the first time that the
anecdotes that have proven to be false upon full inspection.
Doctors have long claimed that Pennsylvania is facing an exodus of
doctors. However, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Insurance,
the number of doctors has been increasing over the last three years,
with approximately 1,000 more doctors paying into the state's mandatory
MCare system than just three years ago. This new information supports
the findings by the General Accounting Office (GAO) that the number of
physicians per capita in Pennsylvania has increased in the past few
years (Scranton Times, 11/28/03).
And just last month it was revealed that when a doctor representing the
Pennsylvania Medical Society told a state Senate committee that the
number of malpractice insurers in Pennsylvania consists of
"technically, three insurers, but only two that are really doing
anything," they were wrong as well.
They made this claim despite the fact that according to Insurance
Department records, eight insurers wrote more than $20 million in
premiums in 2002, the most recent year for which figures are available,
and 13 wrote more than $10 million. More than 80 malpractice insurers
collected premiums from health-care providers in the state. An insurance
department spokesman charitably called the doctor's claim of "three
insurers" in Pennsylvania "misleading."
At some point, isn't enough enough? When will the doctors be called to
account for their repeatedly false and misleading statements?
Dan Fee
PA Citizens for Fairness
