A mind-blowing stat: a member of the board of the American Medical Association claims that NY OB-GYN's pay around $180k for their malpractice insurance, while those in TX pay only $60k.
This in a letter following a WSJ article "Why Doctors are Heading for Texas," which says that the medical examiners' board is getting so many new applications to enter the state that it's facing a backlog of over 3,000. The reason? Tort reforms in 2003 and '05, wherein Texas has capped non-economic damages at $250,000, put all asbestos and silicosis cases in front of one judge pre-trial, and upped the burden of proof in emergency-room cases (to "willful and wanton" from simple negligence). This all lead to an increase of insurers willing to write medical malpractice there. The competition drove prices down. Pretty simple.
