Legal reformer: New York’s Pre-Existing Condition

Yet another report rates New York state “dead last as a place for physicians to practice,” and the primary reason why is “the staggering cost of medical liability insurance,” contends Thomas Stebbins at Gotham Gazette. Indeed, “nearly 20 percent of all the medical liability payouts in the US are paid in New York,” which drives local doctors out of state and weakens access to care. Since 2003, New York City has lost 16 hospitals; many of the remainder “have opted to ‘go naked’ and not carry any medical liability insurance at all.” Yet many insurers “are operating at a loss.” The “real culprit . . . is New York’s broken liability laws” that are “bought and paid for by the state’s powerful trial-lawyer special-interest lobby.” Now Albany is considering extending the statute of limitations on filing a medical-liability claim. That will only “force more medical professionals” to flee.