Doctor Retires Over Rising Malpractice Costs, Lower Pay

She should be a cabbie if she likes delivering babies without worrying about the consequences.

Tort reform, bitches. It will never happen even as these lawsuits completely destroy our industries. That's what we get for having our whole government run by lawyers.

That would also explain why my obgyn is always running off to deliver babies and canceling my appointments at the last second. Back when I had a job that sort of thing REALLY pissed off my boss. She actually asked what type of doctor it was and, when I wouldn't tell her, suggested I get a new one.

Tort reform has two sides to it. How pissed would you be when someone who is seriously and legitimately messed up by a doctor (let's say they lose all their limbs to infection due to a doctor's poor sanitary practices) can only sue for $10,000 because that is the cap?

Sure, it will reduce the number of frivolous suits but it will also reduce the amount of recovery for meritorious claims.

Are you really trying to say there would ever be a $10k cap? IF any tort reform ever passes it will be small. The trial lawyers run this country and they would never cut torts like that.

Most doctors have between a quarter and a half million dollars of student loan on day one of starting their first job (usually around the age of thirty). Add in insane things like $160,000 per year of malpractice insurance (for someone who has never been successfully sued) and its REALLY not that hard to begin to see why medical care costs in this country are so tremendously high.

More people should be allowed to practice certain areas of medicine without quarter-million dollar and seven year long degree/certification processes and those medical professionals shouldn't have to pay the equivalent of a new ferrari every year simply to protect themselves from malpractice lawsuits.

Yeah, but at the same time, many do end up with a new ferrari every year. They gotta keep up with the insurance execs down the street, after all!

Yeah, but at the same time, many do end up with a new ferrari every year.

Only if they're married to an investment banker.

Sad little anecdote. But did they forget to write an article around it? Some statistics, quotes from experts, and additional examples and it might be newsworthy; on its own, I'm like, "Who the fuck is Dr. Jacqueline Perlman?"

@Peter is correct.

This situation is nothing new. Doctors have been giving up obstetrics for nearly two decades because of the cost of malpractice. In fact, the State of Pennsylvania had a crisis on its hands about eight years back, when a large number of OBs either gave up OB or moved to neighboring states. To ensure adequate access to obstetric care for its citizens, the state created an emergency fund to defray the cost of malpractice for OBs.

It stemmed the crisis, but, as I recall, PA still has one of the highest ratios of residents to OBs in the country. So much for pre-natal care.

Did you know that an OB can be sued for up to 18 YEARS after delivery?

If, for example, you kid does lousy in high school you can dig around in the birth records to see if you can find any proof of mal-practice during the delivery and slap the doctor with a lawsuit.

Guess all that lobbying by the insurance companies is finally paying off.

It just happens to suck if you want to have a kid.

well screw her, i'm sure the insurance company was just trying to turn an honest profit. we STILL don't need no big gov't health reform. this is america, where markets and babies regulate themselves!! yee haw!

She's retiring from obstetrics, but presumably will continue to practice gynecology. This is nothing new, many parts of the country have almost no doctors who are willing to deliver babies.

Yeah, my doctor stopped delivering babies and had to refer me an OB.

I wish I could retire at 42 years of age.

It's about time that doctors are not involved in delivering total assholes. How about squatting in the kitchen or in the back yard when you are ready to drop your spawn?