New Year, Same, uh, Stuff

cross-posted from Dome-icile

Okay, I'm back. Wasn't really actually gone, but at least I'm blogging again. And why not lead off the year with an issue that took up a lot of my time last year?

An article in the New Year's Day issue of the Belleville News-Democrat reports that while the past five years were tough on Illinois doctors, they were pretty good for top executives of the state's leading provider of medical malpractice insurance.

Now before you start screaming that this is some type of trial lawyer propoganda, you should know that these comments were made by...the former president of the Illinois State Medical Society.

According to Dr. Arvind Goyal, the nonprofit ISMIE Mutual Insurance Co. -- an offshoot of the state medical society that insures 60 percent of Illinois physicians was raising premium costs by 120 percent in some cases, was doling out big perks to ISMIE executives since the late 1990s.

ISMIE perks to executives included:

(read the rest of the story, and post your comments, at Dome-icile)