Most of you have heard of alleged “run away” medical malpractice verdicts that “ruin” medical coverage — the assumption being that these verdicts result in higher malpractice insurance costs for health professionals and that those costs are passed on to the consumer. In Wisconsin, that is not the case.
In fact, the Legislative Audit Bureau recently reported that a $1.2 billion state-run fund for the payment of large medical malpractice awards has a surplus of $783 million. That surplus is, according to the Bureau, $406 million more than recommended. This surplus continues to grow because very few people each year, in Wisconsin, recover money from medical malpractice cases. From 2004 to 2014, Wisconsin ranked 49th in the U.S. for malpractice payments to injured people per capita.
A recent article in the Wisconsin State Journal provides more details about the surplus in the State-run malpractice fund and why injured patients are finding it more difficult to obtain compensation for their medical treatment related injuries.
