The number of doctors in our state is increasing rapidly despite claims that they are leaving because of the legal environment.

Oklahoma had 193 physicians per 100,000 people in 2003, according to American Medical Association statistics. By 2007 the ratio had grown to 200 per 100,000 people.

In 1998 Oklahoma had 6,412 physicians. By 2007 the number had grown to 7,245, an 11.5 percent increase.

The growth in the number of physicians is an obvious sign that doctors are being trained in Oklahoma and are practicing medicine here, despite scare tactics that depict a non-existent mass exodus to Texas and elsewhere. If doctors do leave, it’s because of a relative lack of residency programs in Oklahoma rather than concerns about liability. And research shows doctors often stay where they complete residency training.

The state’s leading medical malpractice insurer, doctor-owned Physicians Liability Insurance Co.,also is doing well. PLICO is in the best financial shape of its three-decade existence, as its executives proclaim and its reports show.

In 2008 PLICO wrote $63.9 million in premiums and reported claims of $35.5 million. These numbers tell the real story.

The question the state’s doctors should be asking is why PLICO is posting record profits while the number of lawsuits has fallen. Lawsuits aren’t the problem — insurance companies are.

Oklahoma is clearly a profitable insurance market for PLICO; no wonder, with lawsuit filings decreasing rapidly.

From 2003-07medicalnegligence filings decreased by 29.7 percent in the state’s 13 most populous counties. Moreover, 39 counties — 51 percent of the state’s total — had fewer than five medical malpractice lawsuits from 2004-07.

The evidence of a lawsuit crisis simply isn’t there. Those who claim there is one have yet to provide anything more than hearsay and the kinds of anecdotes they regularly dismiss when they come from opponents.

Sometimes what’s not being said is much more important than what is.

If the legal climate in Oklahoma is sohostile, as the medical and insurance lobbies often claim, why has Physicians Practice magazine ranked Oklahoma one of the nation’s most physician friendly states?

Improving health care should include insurance reform and reducing the 100,000 deaths annually from preventable medical errors. These subjects need to be part of the debate but are seldom mentioned. Disciplining the tiny number of physicians who are responsible for the bulk of medical malpractice payments would be a start.

Insurers also must stop charging doctors of the same specialties the same rates regardless of performance.

Imagine paying the same for your car insurance as someone who has been in repeated wrecks or had a DUI. This is how medical malpractice insurance works.

Oklahoma doctors deserve better than to be pawns of the same insurance companies that have made their practices unmanageable, shortchanged their patients and taken their money while blaming others.

Jeff Raymond is executive director of OKWatchdog in OklahomaCity at (405) 418-2115.