On the heels of a 14 percent hike in medical malpractice rates, Gov. Spitzer has directed his insurance superintendent to form a task force to “confront the fundamental drivers” of high medical-malpractice costs.

The task force will be headed by Insurance Superintendent Eric R. Dinallo, and members will include state Health Commissioner Richard F. Daines and what the Insurance Department’s news release described as “a broad range of representatives from physician and hospital associations, the insurance industry, consumer groups, health plans, trial lawyers and the Legislature.”

Assuming task force members have their minds and eyes open, they won’t have to look too hard for one obvious “driver” of high medical-malpractice rates.  As documented in this study by the Manhattan Institute’s Center for Legal Policy, the level of medical malpractice premiums in New York can be linked directly to the state’s large malpractice litigation awards.

Based on a statistical analysis of malpractice premiums and lawsuit awards throughout the nation, the study debunked the argument that high malpractice costs are a result of cyclical insurance-industry trends and price gouging.

Between 1999 and 2001, for example, New York had the nation’s second highest average medical malpractice premium at $42,916 per doctor, according to data compiled by the report’s authors. That was more than three times Vermont’s average and twice that of New Jersey’s, Connecticut’s, and Massachusetts.

The average medical malpractice premium in New York during that same period, meanwhile, was more than double the 50-state average of just over $20,000.

The report’s findings provide added evidence in support of medical malpractice reforms such as a cap on pain and suffering awards.  Such reforms have been introduced in the Legislature, but remain stalled in committee.