Ill., Mo. Join AMA’s Crisis List

Illinois and Missouri, along with six other states, have been added to the American Medical Association’s list of states whose medical liability system are deemed to be in crisis.

In Illinois, where the state Supreme Court has overturned medical liability reforms on three separate occasions, health clinics, hospitals and small towns are in jeopardy because of physicians no longer performing certain procedures such as brain surgery and delivering babies, according to an AMA statement.

Women with gynecological cancers in three rural Missouri towns now have to drive more than 100 miles because the only gynecological oncologist was forced to eliminate his rural outreach clinic due to increasing insurance premiums. Physicians saw their premiums increase more than 60 percent on average last year, the AMA reported.

Arkansas, Connecticut, Kentucky and North Carolina were also added to the list that now stands at 18. A June 2002 AMA analysis had previously cited Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, New Jersey, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington and West Virginia as states in crisis.