Phoenix Personal Injury Lawyer: Will filing lawsuits make everyone’s insurance rates go up?

Are Phoenix Personal Injury Lawyers Creating an Insurance Crisis?

Phoenix Personal Injury lawyers are in the business of making sure that people who are injured get just compensation for their injuries. However, because people who carelessly injure others usually have insurance, some people believe that the work of Phoenix Personal Injury lawyers is increasing insurance premiums for everyone. Though it may surprise you to read it on a Phoenix Personal Injury lawyer’s website, this is technically true. However, the amount by which filing lawsuits affect insurance premiums is hardly noticeable.

It is true that insurance companies would probably be able to charge lower premiums if no one ever filed a claim, but it’s important to remember that only a small fraction of insurance claims occur as a result of lawsuits, and only a small fraction of the costs of insurance are related to payouts. Overall, then, the amount that even all lawsuits considered together add to the cost of insurance is quite small.

Health insurance is a good example. During the recent debate over how to reform our national health care system, many politicians argued that the best way to reduce health care premiums was to eliminate or drastically reduce medical malpractice lawsuits. Over the last 20 years, studies by the GAO and CBO, independent, bipartisan organizations created to provide reliable information to policymakers, have shown that this would not reduce premiums in any significant way.

According to the studies, of all the money that the U.S. spends on healthcare, somewhere between 1 and 2 percent goes to malpractice insurance. Of that amount, about 25% could be saved if medical malpractice lawsuits were completely eliminated. This means the overall reduction in health insurance costs for the average consumer would be about 0.4% In other words, if someone were paying $100.00 per month for health insurance under the current system, they would be paying $99.60 if there were no more medical malpractice lawsuits.

Now, what about those four tenths of a cent out of every dollar that Phoenix (and other) Personal Injury lawyers are responsible for? Yes, some of it goes to pay the lawyers for their work, but most of it goes to ease the suffering of people who were hurt by someone else’s bad conduct and get them back on their feet as soon as possible.

For a real-world example, consider Texas. Texas is one of the states that has gone the furthest in reducing the rights injured patients have to recover from their doctors and doctors’ insurance providers. If expensive lawsuits were a major part of driving up the cost of health insurance, Texas should be one of the cheapest markets for heath insurance in the country. Instead, it’s one of the most expensive, with parts of the state paying nearly twice the national average.

The fact is, even if injured people do not get help from Phoenix Personal Injury lawyers, their injury still costs society money. If the injured person loses their job, they may wind up on welfare. If they can’t afford the medical bills to treat their injuries, they may go bankrupt. Additionally, people who don’t treat their injuries when they should can wind up needing emergency care, which is the most expensive kind. That cost gets passed on to all of us and means higher rates for those who have insurance.

In light of that, consider how much better it would be to simply hold the guilty party responsible for their actions. The most efficient, logical, and fair way to take care of people who have been injured because of someone’s misconduct is to make the guilty person be responsible, either directly or through their insurance company. To do that efficiently and effectively, you need the help of a professional Phoenix Personal Injury lawyer.

If you’ve been seriously hurt, there are going to be hundreds of things that you need to worry about that you never had to consider before. It is very helpful to have the guidance of a Phoenix Personal Injury lawyer with extensive experience in Arizona tort law to ensure that you get the compensation you deserve. To speak with a professional attorney who specializes in Personal Injury, call Zachar Law Firm at (602) 494-4800 or visit www.zacharassociates.com.