What part of $6K per year for malpractice insurance for internal medicine doctors did you miss? Those would be your physicians. And again, malpractice costs $4B out of ~$2.8TRILLION in health care expenses. If the 3x inflation difference is malpractice costs, they're spending $1.9T (the over inflation amount) in what you say goes toward malpractice. Absurd. I'm no fan of lawyers, but the facts and your rhetoric doesn't line up. If there's a shortage of physicians, then supply/demand would mean they would be able to charge ridiculous rates. Lots of demand, little supply. I think you misuse "elective" when it comes to medicine, btw. http://truecostofhealthcare.org/malpractice So, why so little? If medical malpractice is so incredibly expensive that its breaking the back of healthcare in this Country, why is my bill so low? Is it because Im such an outstanding doctor that my insurance provider long ago recognized that I would never be sued? Well, I'd like to think that were true but, no. I recently surveyed some of the doctors who practice near my office. Many of them have their accountant or biller take care of their bills for them so they were strangely unaware of what they paid and rather surprised when I got them to look at their bills. I asked the nephrologist, who has an office one floor below me, to open her bill in front of me. She pays $2,953 a year. Six dollars a year more than I pay and she runs a dialysis unit. There are two cardiologists who share an office one floor below her. One does angioplasties; which are a very invasive and sometimes dangerous procedure. He pays $5,500 a year. The other one doesnt do that procedure so he only pays $3,800. A pulmonologist, whose office is around the corner from them, pays $4,200 a year and he oversees an ICU and does bronchoscopies (another invasive and potentially dangerous procedure). Before getting him to look at his bill, he assured me several times that it was twice that amount. An ophthalmologist I know pays $3,800 a year and does eye surgery, though he told me that his premiums were cut in half when he stopped doing complicated eye surgeries. Emergency Room physicians (who have a very high exposure to malpractice suits) pay about $12,000 a year. General surgery: $18,000, Orthopedic surgery: $20,000. Of all the doctors I spoke to, only Obstetrics/Gynecology paid enough in malpractice premiums as to be a burden (surgeons make a lot even by a doctors standard so most can afford $18,000-$20,000 a year). The one Ob/Gyn doctor I asked told me he pays $40,000 a year (and he's never been sued). Its easy to see from these examples that medical malpractice premiums dont have much financial impact on me or most of my colleagues
