Title: The Mathematics of Financial Derivatives: A Student Introduction / Edition 1
Author: Paul Wilmott, Sam Howison, Jeff Dewynne
ISBN-10: 0521497892
ISBN-13: 9780521497893
“American health care is in crisis because of exploding medical malpractice litigation. Insurance premiums for doctors and malpractice lawsuits are skyrocketing, rendering doctors both afraid and unable to afford to continue to practice medicine. Undeserving victims sue at the drop of a hat, egged on by greedy lawyers, and receive eye-popping awards that insurance companies, hospitals, and doctors themselves struggle to pay. The plaintiffs and lawyers always win; doctors, and the nonlitigious, always lose; and affordable health care is the real victim.” This, according to Tom Baker, is the myth of medical malpractice, and as a reality check he offers this book, a dismantling of this familiar, but inaccurate, picture of the health-care industry. Are there too many medical malpractice suits? No, according to Baker. There is actually a great deal more medical malpractice, with only a fraction of the cases ever seeing the inside of a courtroom; one report shows that only about 3 percent of victims of medical malpractice actually file lawsuits. Is too much litigation to blame for the malpractice insurance crisis? No – for that we can look to financial trends and competitive behavior in the insurance industry. Are these lawsuits frivolous? Very rarely, given that recent studies suggest that between one and six patients out of every hundred is injured due to medical mismanagement. Point by point, Baker – a leading authority on insurance and law – pulls together the research that demolishes the myths that have taken hold about medical malpractice and suggests a series of legal reforms that would help doctors manage malpractice insurance while also improving patient safety and medical accountability.
