( - promoted by Dean Barker)
When the insurance company flacks next wail that government health insurance can be nothing but a disaster of inefficiency, ask them to explain the hundred plus million dollar surplus of the JUA, which provides malpractice insurance of the last resort for physicians. The Concord Monitor has an instructive article by Margot Sanger-Katz that demonstrates that the surplus and the popularity of the JUA among doctors derive from its record for efficiency and reliability.
(Set up) more than 30 years later, the JUA continues to insure doctors with multiple malpractice lawsuits and those in high-risk specialties. But many of its subscribers are practitioners with options who simply prefer it to its competitors.
While originally an insurance pool of last resort, the JUA has become the first choice for a large number of doctors who have had it with the waste and inefficiency of policies provided by private insurance companies. Among them is Dr Mark Leclair of a group practice in Bedford which has tried both the public and the private option:
"We thought the JUA was very conservative, very well-run, and I think, if anything, the surplus that they have is a reflection of how they've been managed," he said.
The Monitor article points out that the JUA has achieved its popularity in spite of burdens not shared by the private policies, including a requirement that they provide policies to even the highest risk physicians. The JUA is also forbidden to sell policies at rates below the market (hence the surplus at issue).
A true public option in health care will provide reliability, efficiency, and massive savings that can be used to drive down the overall cost to consumers. Just as physicians have over time flocked to the better public option of the JUA, private citizens will over time vote with their feet (and dollars) for a public option in health care.
And that is what has the insurance giants trembling. |
