Three more LIES from the flabby old crook--did he say anytihng that WAS even close to true last night?
"Debate Fact Check
1) Cheney overstates Wyoming doctors’ premiums by a factor of six.
Cheney stated: “
rates for a general practitioner have gone from $40,000 a year to $100,000 a year for an insurance policy.”
The Facts: In 2004, the insurance rate for the state’s leading underwriter (Doctors Company) for family general practice was $15,322 (no obstetrics, no surgery), according to a non-partisan report from the Wyoming Legislative Service Office.
2) Cheney’s disappearing doctor figure is contradicted by hard numbers
Cheney stated: “We’ve lost one out of 11 OB/GYN practitioners in the country.”
The Facts: Cheney apparently relied on a survey commissioned by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) in which 9 percent of respondents said they had ceased practice. But every year thousands of obstetricians stop delivering babies as they get older. The ACOG survey did not attempt to determine whether malpractice rates were a statistically significant factor affecting OB/GYNs’ decisions.
In fact, the number of board-certified OB/GYNs in the United States grew by 18.1 percent from 1999 to 2004, according to the American Board of Medical Specialties. Meanwhile, the population of women of child-bearing age (15 to 44) increased only 2.9 percent from 1999 to 2003, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
3) Cheney’s New Mexico anecdote is revealing: caps on damages don’t lower doctors’ insurance premiums.
Cheney stated: “I was in New Mexico the other day and met with a group of OB/GYN docs.
And they were deeply concerned because they were fearful that there’d be another increase in malpractice insurance rates as a result of what they believe are frivolous lawsuits and that that would put them out of business. And one doctor indicated that her rates have gone up so much that she’s now to the point where she is screening patients. She won’t take high-risk patients anymore because of the danger that that will generate a lawsuit, and a lawsuit will put her out of business.”
The Facts: Cheney is correct that rates have risen in New Mexico, where there already is a cap on non-economic damages. But this only proves that his “solution” to a temporary spike in rates – a cap on non-economic damages – does not lower doctors’ premiums. According to Medical Liability Monitor, rates for OB/GYNs went up in New Mexico by 52 percent in 2003, but that was more than in either of its neighboring states, Arizona and Texas, which did not have caps in 2003. In fact, the New Mexico insurance company (Mutual Insurance Company of Arizona), which increased its rates 52 percent in 2003, increased its rates 11 to 14 percent in Arizona that year."
http://www.commondreams.org/news2004/1006-01.htm
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