"Tort Reform Is Bunk"

Here's a nice letter to the editor of the Baltimore City Paper:

"...Texans amended their state constitution to place a cap on medical malpractice awards for pain and suffering. GE Medical Protective, the nation’s largest provider of medical malpractice insurance, has admitted in a filing that a $250,000 cap on damage awards for victims of malpractice will not lower physicians’ premiums.

According to the filing, in which the insurer requested a 19 percent hike for doctors’ insurance, “Non-economic damages are a small percentage of total losses paid. Capping non-economic damages will show loss savings of 1 percent,” which contradicts a March 2004 report in which GE Medical Protective stated that capping noneconomic damages is a “critical element (of reform) because in recent years we have seen non-economic damages spiraling out of control.”

Again, an insurance company - the largest malpractice insurer in the nation, purportedly - admits that tort reform won't save doctors any money.