Is the Medical Malpractice Insurance "crisis" over?

A group called Americans for Insurance Reform has issued a study that concludes there has been a "wholesale decline of medical malpractice insurance rates nationwide" and that the so-called medical malpractice insurance "crisis" is over--whether or not states enacted restrictions on patients such as compensation caps.

You are now free to get sick.

AIR's study, which is supposedly based on the most recent Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers survey of market conditions, shows average medical malpractice rate hike for doctors over the past six months has been 0 percent and had been in steady decline before then. By comparison, rates jumped 63 percent during the same quarter of 2002.

The AIR says regular market fluctuations in the insurance industry caused the earlier rate instability. Given the current data, there is no need for draconian measures like tort reform aimed at patients, the group concludes.