High Medical Insurance Held Affecting Care

WASHINGTON —  The sharply rising cost of medical malpractice insurance threatens to restrict medical care needed by the American people, Health and Human Services Secretary Otis R. Bowen said Friday.

Bowen offered that assessment in releasing a government study on the malpractice problem.

The wide-ranging, 209-page report of the Task Force on Medical Liability and Malpractice concluded that steps taken by the various states in recent years have helped, but that more action is needed.

Offers Alternatives

It makes few specific recommendations but offers a broad framework of alternatives for state consideration.

For example, it says state licensing boards should be properly staffed, financed and authorized to carry out effective disciplinary programs and that education programs should be initiated to help doctors understand the legal system and help patients understand the risks of medical care.

Bowen said at a news conference in Indianapolis that the study found malpractice insurance premiums rose 81% for the average physician between 1982 and 1985.

“For the hardest hit specialty of obstetrics-gynecology,” rates “went up 113%,” he said. “Increases of this magnitude are worrisome.”

Bowen said such rising costs raise concerns that older physicians may retire and that others will “simply stop performing the high-risk procedures that are associated with malpractice suits.”

Less Access to Care

“The net impact of all this may mean that people will have less access to necessary medical care,” he said. “While evidence that this may be happening is not conclusive, the task force collected enough data to show that it is indeed a problem in a number of places.”

Among the report’s other recommendations for state consideration:

--Imposing limits on damage awards and attorneys’ fees.

--Authorizing and encouraging voluntary, binding arbitration for malpractice claims.

--Advance agreement between doctors and patients on methods of settling disputes short of lawsuits.

--Assistance from private and public organizations in providing malpractice insurance for physicians if necessary to ensure access to care.

--Systems of patient indemnity insurance for medical injuries, similar to flight insurance offered to airline passengers.

--Establishment of patient compensation funds as an alternative to conventional insurance.

As the purchaser of medical care for millions of Americans through Medicare, Medicaid and other health programs, the government has studied the medical malpractice insurance issue at various intervals since 1971. President Reagan requested this latest study last year.