Surgeons walk out

last updated 8 January 2015

Weirton, W.Va.

Two dozen West Virginia surgeons walked off the job last week to protest the skyrocketing cost of medical malpractice insurance. The walkout, launched a week after a similar protest in Pennsylvania, signaled growing frustration across the country. Surgeons have been hit with as much as an 80 percent jump in premiums over one year. Doctors in hard-hit states such as West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Nevada—who can pay more than $200,000 a year in premiums—have demanded that lawmakers limit the amount of money juries can award victims of medical mistakes. The crisis has forced the closing of some trauma centers, maternity wards, and other facilities prone to lawsuits, said Donald Palmisano, president-elect of the American Medical Association. “There’s a meltdown occurring right now.”