Here's an overview from that link I posted above:
********from the Texas Medical Association web site***********
Proposition 12 Produces Healthy Benefits
Access to Health Care has Improved
Texas has added more than 4,500 physicians since passage of the 2003 reforms and is licensing an average of 400 more doctors per year than in the pre-reform years.
The Texas Medical Board accepted a record 4,026 applications for new physician licenses in 2006. That is 38 percent more than 2005, which previously was the boards busiest year on record.
After years of decline, the ranks of medical specialists are growing.
After a net loss of 14 obstetricians from 2001 to 2003, Texas experienced a net gain of 163 obstetricians.
Texas experienced a net loss of 9 orthopedic surgeons from 2000 to 2003. Since tort reform, the state experienced a net gain of 154 orthopedic surgeons.
Texas has experienced a net gain of 23 neurosurgeons since Prop 12, including one each in the medically underserved communities of Corpus Christi and Beaumont.
Medically underserved communities are posting impressive gains.
The Rio Grande Valley added 128 physicians in the two years after reforms. That represents a robust 10.6 percent increase in Hidalgo County and an even greater 13.3 percent increase in Cameron County.
Jefferson, Nueces and Victoria counties saw a net loss of physicians in the eighteen months prior to tort reform. Currently, all three counties are producing impressive gains; adding much-needed specialists and emergency medicine physicians.
The physician growth rate in San Antonio is 52 percent greater than pre-reform.
The physician growth rate in El Paso is 5 percent greater than pre-reform.
The physician growth rate in Houston is 45 percent greater than pre-reform.
Lawsuits filings and Claims Losses are Down
Claims and lawsuits against doctors and hospitals in most Texas counties have been cut in half.
Premiums are Stable and Declining
All major physician liability carriers in Texas have cut their rates since the passage of the reforms, most by double-digits. Texas physicians have seen their liability rates cut, on average, 19 percent. Two-thirds of Texas doctors have seen their rates slashed a quarter or more.
Producing cumulative liability cost savings of $230 million for Texas physicians since January of 2004.
Fifteen rate cuts have occurred in Texas since the passage of the 2003 landmark reforms.
Earlier this month (January, 2007), TMLT, the states largest insurer of physicians began implementing a $48 million liability cost reduction; arguably the largest ever dollar reduction by a U.S. physician insurer.
Reductions in premiums since the passage of Prop. 12 and respective savings:
Texas Medical Liability Trust: 26.5 percent, and $138 million in savings plus two renewal dividends totaling an additional $45 million.
APIE: 17.4 percent, and $14.8 million in savings
Medical Protective: 19.8 percent, and $17.6 million in savings
Joint Underwriting Association (JUA): 10 percent,and $6 million in savings)
The Doctors Company, 24.5 percent, and $4.2 million in savings
Advocate MD: 29.5 percent, and $5.34 million in savings
Cumulative liability cost savings since January, 2004: $230 million.
Competition in the Health Care Liability Market is Increasing
Since the passage of Proposition 12, Texas has added:
Thirty new medical liability insurers have entered the market since February of 2003.
Texas physicians can competitively shop their policies.
Thirteen percent of the commercial physician liability market is being insured by companies new to Texas since February, 2003.
Doctors are leaving the Joint Underwriting Association (JUA), the state pool of last resort, in favor of the commercial market.
Hospital Savings
Many Texas hospitals are using their liability savings to upgrade medical equipment and expand their emergency rooms, launch patient safety programs, expand charity care and improve salaries for nurses
Last Published: 1/25/2007
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Since then, there's been another 2% decrease in premium prices overall.
Take care,
Jeff
