West Virginia Republican head wants to address medical malpractice rates
By: Health Insurance
Submitted: 2009-09-02 14:54:55 | Word Count: 556
The chairman of West Virginian Republican Party has called on the government to exert more attention on health care, the same problem in Michigan medical malpractice insurance, which he said is one of the main factors in the rise of health care cost.
The lawmaker was a urologist, practicing in Bridgeport, West Virginia. He was former president of the West Virginia Medical Association. In 2003 when he was president of the association, the state approved the establishment of a private-run medical malpractice insurance.
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According to McKenney, he did not pay his membership dues to the American Medical Association (AMA) in 2009 in protest to AMA’s support to a pending bill before Congress on health care reform. He said the draft health care reform bill should have looked at the experience of West Virginia and that the state should emulate its success.
According to the lawmaker, the proposed bill was silent in addressing the concern of medical malpractice. Until they get that, they’re just kidding themselves. They can’t decrease health care costs until they decrease the cost of medical fees.
“We can prove that if you lower the cost on medical malpractice expenses, doctos premiums will also go down. We have the evidence in West Virginia.”
Lawmakers in the state of West Virginia passed a law in 2003 that called for the establishment of a physician-run Medial Mutual Cooperative. This was created to avoid the problem faced by the Michigan medical malpractice. To ensure the successful launch of the cooperative, the state has allocated at least $25 million in seed money for the venture. The state’s legislature also set a limit on medical pain and suffering awards in the state.
McKenney cited the benefits of the legislation which was being credited for the drop in the malpractice suit in the state to as high as 60 percent and decline in health care cost amounting to 40 percent.
He boasts of Medical Mutual’s successful operation that, up to date, the cooperative was able to complete payment to the $25 million seed money that the state had provided them.
Medical Mutual also has an estimated $10 million held in escrow in the bank, he said.
“They allowed us to form our own Medical Mutual, and it has been largely successful,” McKinney said. “Our senators (U.S. Sens. Senators Robert Byrd and Jay Rockefeller, both Democrats from Washington.Va.) and two of our congressmen (U.S. Reps. Democratic lawmakers from Washington Alan Mollodan and Nick Rahall.Va.) not only ignore this, they deny it.”
McKinney also has concerns about one aspect of the proposed health care reform that would establish a government-run public health insurance option to address the problem like in other cities that addressed the issue, including the Michigan medical malpractice issue.
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