North Carolina insurer claims tort reform lowered malpractice premiums.

The Raleigh (NC) News & Observer (4/16, Jarvis, Christensen) reports, "A medical malpractice insurer has lowered its premiums and is crediting what is often called tort reform in this and other states. Mag Mutual Insurance Co., the second-largest such firm in the state, credits the new laws with almost half of its recent 7.4 percent average cut in insurance premiums for doctors. The legislature last year overrode Gov. Bev Perdue's veto of a bill capping "noneconomic" damages at $500,000." The president of N.C. Advocates for Justice countered by saying that insurance companies "have long over-charged doctors, racking up huge profits and using a fictional tort 'crisis' to limit the rights of those catastrophically hurt by medical errors." He also faulted state political leaders for not addressing "the real problem -- preventable medical errors that leave scores of North Carolinians injured or dead."

        Ohio insurance report shows decline in malpractice claims, payments. The Columbus (OH) Dispatch (4/15, Johnson) reported, "Ohio's tort-reform law is having a dramatic impact on medical malpractice cases in the state, with closed claims dropping 41 percent between 2005 and 2010, and average payments declining 38 percent over that period. The Ohio Department of Insurance annual report also shows more than 3 of 4 closed claims resulted in no payment." An official with the Ohio State Medical Association notes that malpractice premiums have fallen by over 26%, and points to that as "proof that tort reform accomplished what it set out to do - slow the growth of what we thought were runaway lawsuits and to stabilize the market for physicians."

        Advocates say California shows tort reform may not lower premiums. In contrast, the Center for Justice & Democracy's Pop Tort website (4/13) claims that the experience of California shows that tort reform does not necessarily lower insurance rates. It charges that the state's "medical malpractice insurance industry has simply became bloated, with insurers paying out only tiny percentages of the premiums they are collecting from doctors." It hailed actions by the state's insurance commissioner to force lower rates, and urged support for a ballot initiative that would extend the commissioner's rate regulatory powers to the health insurance industry.