Health Care Management Papers

Document Type

Journal Article

Date of this Version

3-2009

Publication Source

The Journal of Risk and Insurance

Volume

76

Issue

1

Start Page

197

Last Page

219

DOI

10.1111/j.1539-6975.2009.01294.x

Abstract

Whereas the literature evaluating the effect of tort reforms has focused on the impact of reforms on insurers' reported incurred losses, this article examines the ultimate effects of reforms using the developed losses from a comprehensive sample of insurers writing medical malpractice insurance from 1984 to 2003. Noneconomic damages caps are particularly influential in reducing medical malpractice losses and increasing insurer profitability. The long‐run effects of these reforms are greater than insurers' expected effects; for example, 5‐ and 7‐year developed loss ratios are below the initially reported incurred loss ratios for those years following the enactment of noneconomic damages caps. Analyses of reported losses consequently understate the ultimate effects of tort reforms. The quantile regressions show that reforms have the greatest effects for the firms that are at the high end of the loss distribution.

Copyright/Permission Statement

This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: [Born, P., Viscusi, W.K., & Baker, T. The Effects of Tort Reform on Medical Malpractice Insurers' Ultimate Losses. The Journal of Risk and Insurance 76, no. 1: 197-219], which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6975.2009.01294.x.

This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving: https://authorservices.wiley.com/author-resources/Journal-Authors/licensing-open-access/licensing/self-archiving.html.

Download

Share

COinS
 

Date Posted: 26 June 2018

This document has been peer reviewed.