Malpractice Insurance

John H. Sullivan of the Assn. for California Tort Reform, an insurance industry trade group, attempts to give the credit for lower medical malpractice premiums to a 1975 law which limits compensation to victims (letter, Dec. 1). He claims that the average annual premium in California in 1991 dropped 61% from 1976, while insinuating that rates elsewhere have skyrocketed, by picking out two states where premiums happen to be higher.

In fact, after the enactment of the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act, malpractice rates rose 191% through 1988. It was only after the passage of Proposition 103, the insurance reform measure passed in 1988 and vigorously opposed by the insurance industry, that rates began to drop, 20% from 1988 to 1991.

The disparity Sullivan claims in malpractice premiums between California and other states on average doesn’t exist. The average physician nationally in 1990 paid less than $600 more for malpractice coverage than California doctors, a difference of less than 8%. In 1991, the cost of medical malpractice premiums per capita in the U.S. and California was $19.28 and $17.26, respectively. What does this difference translate to in costs passed on to health care consumers? Medical malpractice victims have had their rights limited for about the cost of a cup of coffee and a Sunday edition of The Times.

PHILIP ROBERTO

Prop. 103 Enforcement Project

Los Angeles