Again: Med Mal Rates

NC Trial Lawyers say mutual med mal insurer charges too much.

Again:  It is a mutual insurance company.  Any surplus belongs to the policy holder physicians.  If the insurer has too much surplus, eventually the consumers (physicians) get it back with interest.  If an insurer has too much surplus, it may imply that the insurer is worried about being able to cover its eventual liabilities. 

I also can see a legitimate suit against the directors of a mutual company for not being prudent if they did not carry the necessary surplus for a med mal insurer.

Again, if you can do  better (as Ted Frank suggests)  form your own company. 

Again:  It is Jay Angoff saying this.

I think it is interesting to see that the trial bar is interested in insurance prices.  Perhaps it is feeling guilty?

Comments

[Layne]

Not only does the surplus belong to the policyholders who are supposedly being "overcharged", but the policyholders also have the right to elect the board of directors who set the company's policy on everything from rate structure (more-or-less a rubber-stamp), to dividend policy.

The trial lawyers are just trying to shift the heat that they are getting from their Doctor friends for exhorbitant jury awards onto the insurance industry.

[riskprof]

Good point! In all the excitement I overlooked this additional control on the management.