Medical liability insurance does not guarantee patient safety

Abstract

The present article, based on the hypotheticaldeductive method, dealt with medical liability insurance in Brazil in view of the increase in health-related lawsuits. From a research with a qualitative approach and the use of bibliographic and documental procedures, the objective was to discover whether the contracting of professional insurance would have a possible preventive effect of protecting the doctor and the patient against damages during care. To do so, introductory notions about this type of insurance  and the main contemporary challenges related to its use were presented, and finally, the probable consequences of this type of insurance Against indemnity claims were evaluated. It was verified that the contracting of medical liability insurance has not yet reached expressive numbers in the country, and that the inexistence of legislative imposition and the absence of incentive by the competent professional council may be factors that contribute to this scenario. With similar pre-existing challenges, the experience in the United States has demonstrated the opposite effect to prevention, with the growth of indemnity suits and the emergence of a new crisis. Finally, the results pointed to the solidification of patient safety at the expense of the adversities arising from insurance adherence.