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Dr. Denise Baker of Bradenton sat behind first lady Laura Bush Tuesday night as President Bush asked Congress to limit medical malpractice awards in "frivolous lawsuits."
Baker said lawsuits against her were partially to blame for higher insurance rates that forced her to quit delivering babies. She has settled four malpractice claims since 1998, totaling more than $600,000.
Bradenton resident Bill Bartram and his wife, Phyllis, filed one of those lawsuits.
"Frivolous? (My wife) almost died," said Bartram, 61. He and his 55-year-old wife settled their suit in December 2000.
"My wife has a scar on her stomach as big as a fist," after an operation in 1998 in which her bowel was punctured, Bartram said. Bartram said he saw Baker's picture in the paper Wednesday and was outraged.
"I'm a Democrat, but I think the Republicans are putting politics in their medicine without checking out their doctors," he said.
In an interview with The Associated Press Wednesday, Baker referred to none of her patients by name, but she described a case in which she slightly punctured a woman's bowel during laparoscopic surgery.
Mainly because of those claims, Baker's annual insurance premiums rose from $58,000 to $200,000 last year, she said.
Instead of moving to another state, where she could get coverage for about $8,000 a year, Baker kept her gynecology practice in Bradenton.
But, leaving aside bashing Dr. Baker, this does raise the following question - how screwed up must the malpractice insurance market be if one state is offering it for $8,000 and another for $200,000?
There is likely an obvious answer which no one seems to be talking about. In fact, there was enough not talking about it that I hadn't even realized it until a few days ago - the insurance industry is exempt from federal anti-trust regulation.
Repeal that exemption. Or, simply cap the rates. Problem solved.