Med Mal Critique Challenged
To The Editor:
Regarding the piece by J. Robert Hunter, director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America in Washington, on medical malpractice (see "Consumer Advocate Challenges Insurers On 'Crisis' In Med Mal Mkt.," Oct. 7, page 10), Im tired of so-called "consumer advocates" who seem to have all the answers on whats wrong with insurance companies and how to do it the right way.
If they are so smart, why doesnt anyone challenge them (and their friends, the trial lawyers) to "put up or shut up?" Go raise the money and start an insurance company to compete with us incompetent folks, and pass the savings onto their constituents in substantial premium reductions.
Gene Miller, CPCU
Executive Vice President
Western National Mutual Ins. Co.
Minneapolis, Minn.
To The Editor:
How very kind of J. Robert Hunter to inform the uneducated readers of your great publication on the real reasons for problems in the medical professional liability insurance markets.
That his revelation in the Oct. 7 edition comes too late to save a place at the table for the St. Paul and other insurance companies that have despaired of finding a long-range business model for this line is just too bad.
That Mr. Hunter and perhaps others who studied at the knee of Ralph Nader would find fault with the free-enterprise-based provider of such coverages, and not with the jackals who feed off of the efforts of so many of those of us who toil in our industry, is not surprising.
In the past, Mr. Nader and his disciples would beat the drums of "corporate greed" as the reason for so many problems in business and industry. Today, with carriers exiting the medical malpractice business, the mantra has become "mismanagement."
There is ample evidence that we in the insurance business have no better crystal balls than others. But at the end of the day, after we have tried to serve our clients, attract new clients, pay the help, and deliver the promises made through the contracts of insurance we issue or sell, we have tried to bring some degree of security to an uncertain world.
To quote a friend of mine in a recent speech, "It is a good thing we do."
Thomas Craig Watson Jr., CPCU
President
Watson Insurance Agency
Gastonia, N.C.
Reproduced from National Underwriter Property & Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, October 21, 2002. Copyright 2002 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.