On Jan.1, 2005, insurance rates from Maryland's biggest physician malpractice insurer, a company called Medical Mutual Liability Insurance Society of Maryland (MMLIS), will go up by a whopping 33 percent. The premiums weren't cheap before; in fact, they were increased by 28 percent just last January…

There is no actuarial evidence to support any big rate hike for Med Mutual. The company's own web site touts its viability, solid investment strategy, and size…

What we have going on in Maryland right now is a miniaturized version of classic Bush administration strategy: hype up a nonexistent crisis, pressure public officials and the news media to go along, and push through a policy initiative that further undermines the middle class by conveying public resources into private hands. Just as Team Bush drummed up a nonexistent "mushroom cloud" to justify invading (and privatizing) Iraq, it is now drumming up a nonexistent crisis in Social Security to justify invading and privatizing one of the New Deal's most successful programs.

Here in Maryland, Bush-lite "Team Ehrlich" is doing a version of the same, mounting a campaign of hype to convey public money into the hands of insurance companies.

It would be interesting to find out whether [Maryland governor] Ehrlich's people put the company up to the rate hike, and whether the Bush team put Ehrlich's people up to it. After all, any successfully promoted "malpractice crisis" would aid Bush's so-called tort reform…

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