First, do no harm. Then check the diagnosis. Joanne Doroshow of the Center for Justice & Democracy calls the American Medical Association “a shameful organization that has chosen to lie down with a profiteering industry instead of protecting patients. The AMA and state medical societies have created a ‘crisis’ atmosphere in many states [including Illinois] by encouraging doctors to strike until caps [on doctors’ liability] are enacted.” Writing for TomPaine.com (June 19), she bolsters her case with a study issued by the independent financial-ratings agency Weiss Ratings on June 2, which found that “over the last decade, states with caps on non-economic damage awards saw doctors’ malpractice insurance premiums rise faster than in states without caps….Weiss’s conclusions are consistent with those of every credible, independent body which has studied this issue, finding that interest rates, the economy and the economic cycle of the insurance industry are the cause of severe sudden rate hikes for doctors, which happen periodically irrespective of legal limits imposed in a particular state.”
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“Despite the rapid growth in minority suburban population, segregation levels held essentially steady during the 1990s” in Chicago, writes Guy Stuart of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government in the 2003 “Taubman Center Report.” “In incorporated suburbs, the segregation index for African Americans in relation to non-Latino whites was 73 in 1990 and 71 in 2000. For Latinos the scores were 42 and 49, respectively. School district data produce similar results. For children under the age of 18, the segregation index in all suburbs for African Americans in relation to non-Latino whites was 68 in both 1990 and 2000. For Latinos and non-Latino whites, the scores were 46 and 50, respectively.”
