Tort Reform Takes Hold … For Now

In 2003, Texas enacted legislation limiting personal-injury lawsuits. According to a recent article in the Houston Chronicle, medical liability insurance premiums have since dropped by 21.3 percent. While the state is being flooded with incoming physicians, the medical malpractice lawsuit business is drying up.

Here in Illinois, the impact of the state’s new reform law also is starting to take hold with steady or decreasing premiums and fewer medical liability insurance claims.

In addition:

• As reported in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Anderson Hospital of Maryville is having success recruiting doctors, having added a family physician, a general surgeon and dermatologist – a turnaround after losing physicians due to high malpractice insurance rates.
• The Chicago Tribune last month reported a new liability insurer has entered the Illinois market, due to the improved business climate.

To attract physicians to Illinois and build robust competition among insurance companies, the law to ensure a fair court system must “stay on the books,” ultimately proving a victory for all people of Illinois.