It has been all over the news that, “The New York State Insurance Department Tuesday approved a 14 percent hike in New York’s medical malpractice insurance rates.” I’m sure this was necessary to keep medical malpractice insurance companies afloat, but it isn’t necessarily good news for the medmal industry. After all, the real profit in virtually all industries is found in having many customers. With doctors moving to Texas at a rapid rate, it is hard to see how the number of doctors in New York won’t decrease.

According to The New York Sun’s “‘Worst of Both Worlds’ Hits Insurance,”

In the first double-digit increase in at least five years, the New York State Insurance Department increased medical liability costs by 14%, the highest annual increase since 1993. Doctors warned that the increase in malpractice insurance costs amounts to a crisis that will be passed along to patients in the form of higher fees and to businesses in the form of higher health insurance premiums for their employees.

New York’s medical malpractice premiums already are among the highest in the nation, and the latest increase may contribute to mounting political pressure to come up with a policy change to provide some relief.

As an aside, we can add to that pressure the issue of national security. A recent columnist at Townhall.com, recently wrote that medical “costs can be dramatically cut through continued tort reform efforts.” The column however, was primarily about Al Qaeda. It seems that the doctors recently arrested in Britain are a direct result of economic pressures related to health care forcing the United Kingdom to greatly need to import medical care. So Ken Blackwell writes in his “Al Qaeda Raises the Bar in Health Care Debate,”

The news from London and Glasgow brings a striking reminder that Al Qaeda is willing to exploit any national weakness.

In the case of the British, it’s an ongoing physician shortage brought on by the inherit shortcomings of their government-run health care system. The shortage allowed Al Qaeda operatives to legally enter the country and quickly become trusted members of its National Health Service.

Foreign doctors are given top priority and almost immediate entrance into Great Britain. In fact, they make up nearly 40% of all British doctors.

Back to the issue at hand, in their “Skyrocketing MedMal Rates Send a Message” the Empire Center for New York State Policy lays out the obvious smoking gun that this hike was the consequence of some extraordinarily high medmal payments in court.

As documented in this study by the Manhattan Institute’s Center for Legal Policy, the level of medical malpractice premiums in New York can be linked directly to the state’s large malpractice litigation awards.

I haven’t seen much comment in the Medical blogosphere (due to shock?). But Kevin MD did point out a news story that we are seeing signs of the shortages one would expect. According to the Syracuse Post-Standard’s story, “Malpractice rate hike hits local health care,”

“In Oswego County, there is no longer an obstetrician who will take on high-risk pregnancies, and attempts to get someone to come to that county to do that have not been successful,” said Gerald Hoffman, executive vice president of the Onondaga County Medical Society, which serves Syracuse and Central New York.

For expectant parents, that can mean a 45-minute drive to the hospital in good weather – far longer in bad weather – and added risk to both mother and child.

The situation is troubling, patients and those in the medical profession say, and it’s likely to get worse.