Emanuel Cleaver: “A national study conducted in 2005 by former Missouri Insurance Commissioner Jay Angoff found that insurance companies…”

“A national study conducted in 2005 by former Missouri Insurance Commissioner Jay Angoff found that insurance companies have been price-gouging doctors by dramatically and drastically raising their insurance premiums, even though claims for payments have been flat or decreasing. According to the annual statements of 15 large insurance companies, the 15th largest in fact, the amount malpractice insurers collected in premiums increased by 120.2 percent between 2000 and 2004, while claim payouts rose by only 5.7 percent. I think if you look at the report from Jay Angoff from the Missouri Insurance Commission, you find that clearly the insurance companies are the ones doing enormous damage to this country. The other issue is that I think the insurance companies have gouged so much that many of the people in the country, probably even in my home State, operate under the assumption that malpractice costs run physicians away from their profession. The truth of the matter is that, according to the American Medical Association, the number of physicians in the United States of America increased by 40 percent since 1990, 40 percent.”