Governor McDonnell, please veto SB771
By D.J. McGuire | Friday, February 25th, 2011 | Policy
Every now and then, a blogger decides to charge a windmill. I tend to do it more than most. I’m doing it again today.
I am asking Governor McDonnell to veto SB771 – a bill that won aye votes from 40 Senators and 92 Delegates. I ask him because those 132 legislators are wrong. We have yet another class Paul Wells Second Rule moment (adapted from Canada to Virginia): If everyone in Richmond knows something, it’s not true.
SB771 is a recently passed bill that would raise the “malpractice cap,” i.e., the maximum amount plaintiffs can win in malpractice suits, from $2 million to just under $3 million. According to the Washington Post, two lawyers (!) in the General Assembly basically presented the bill to the medical community as an offer they couldn’t refuse.
That is passed so easily is troubling; if Governor McDonnell were to sign it, it would send a terrible signal to doctors and health professionals across the country.
One of the least discussed aspects of the health care debate is our chronic and increasing doctor shortage (Jim Bacon provides the gory details in Boomergeddon, pages 114-119). While there has been frighteningly little discussion about how to address the shortage, it is without doubt that upping the malpractice cap will discourage the practice of medicine, and make the shortage worse. Our elected officials should not be exacerbating this problem.
I know I’m coming very late to the game on this.
I know I’m asking the Governor (on whom I’ve been hard on various occasions) to stick his neck way out and hope his veto will convince enough Republicans in at least one house to come to their senses (14 in the Senate, 28 in the House to add to the 6 current opponents).
However, I am also asking the Governor to keep the legislature from making the doctor shortage worse.
Please, Governor, veto SB771.
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About the author
Former candidate for Board of Supervisors in Spotsylvania, current blogger, economics teacher, and long-rumored windbag. There are two causes closest to the heart: steering the country away from the social democratic nonsense that is sinking Europe, and convincing the rest of the "rightosphere" that the NBA really is a joy to watch.
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16 Responses to "Governor McDonnell, please veto SB771"
God forbid people can recover damages from doctors who screw up. We have one of the toughest tort regimes for patients in the country. This isn’t going to change that.
Yes, it will, Brian. It will make it softer, and fewer doctors will come here.
Stuff like this created the shortage that made Obamacare a political possibility.
Didn’t Texas make some adjustments to malpractice lawsuits? What was the result? Can we try to learn from what other people have done or not done? Or is it NIH syndrome? (That’s not NIH in Bethesda it’s “not invented here”).
Having said that, the info I found on the legislation stated that the $3 million dollar limit is not reached until 2031. If correct that’s a long time to change things if something needs to change.
DJ
This bill simply memorializes an agreement reached by the stakeholders. The Medical Society of Virginia, The Virginia Hospital Association, the Virginia Trial Lawyers, the Insurance carriers, etc. all came together and crafted this legislation. They all agree that this is a balanced approach to provide a remedy for legitimate claims, keep insurance costs low and keep access to care high. There is no interest group (citizen, industry or otherwise) opposing this legislation. No one analyzing the pros and cons agrees with your fears. Why, when all of the stakeholders agree, do you oppose the bill?
Greg
The impression I got was that the doctors were negotiating with a gun to their head.
More importantly, no matter who put it together, I still believe it will make the doctor shortage worse.
D. J.,
Just for what it is worth, I had an orthopedic surgeon who repaired my shoulder from several skiing accidents. He followed his father into practice in DC and for years maintained a secondary office in Virginia. A few years ago, he flipped his offices and now maintains the Virginia one as his primary practice. The reason was the difference in malpractice insurance premiums (he has never had a claim) between the District and Virginia was the cost of a Lexus every year. Maryland, he told me, is on par with DC.
I don’t think that Virginia is in danger of scaring away doctors with our malpractice caps, at least not in comparison with the adjacent jurisdictions.
I’m wondering why the medical industry alone gets such protection. What is so special about them that they get special protections?
When the average truck driver screws up on the road, he is crucified. But when the doctor screws up on the operating table he needs protection?
LD,
When the doctor screws up on the operating table, he typically doesn’t have a bottle of vodka and a baggie of amphetamines in his office. If he does, then he gets crucified even worse than the intoxicated truck driver who rams a church van.
BTW, are there any caps on your liability insurance? Are you required to carry $3M in coverage?
HisRoc, Yeah, but those evil physician’s amputate feet for $30K-$40K profit. How could you ever defend such an horrible profession? How dare you?
Only LD would equate a $3 million dollar cap with “special protection”. Oh sorry Mike B would say the same. You have to remember that the defense lawyers are a special funding group to the Dems so anything that might hamper their fee collection concerns the leftists. IMO punitive damages should be banned or if they are awarded it should be to a charity never a penny to the lawyers or govt. That will curb their enthusiasm. Although at least in VA they are limited to 350k.
The odd thing is that Dems have no comparable problem with crooks inflicting injury on you. They become objects of sympathy to the leftists who will never garnish Their earnings.
John Jackson,
You cite as an authority the author of ObamaCare? The guy who claimed that “if you like your present health care coverage you can keep it.” The guy who claimed that ObamaCare would reduce the Federal deficit and then, after it was passed, said that “we knew that we couldn’t add 30 million people to health insurance coverage without increasing costs.”
Sure, I will trust the word of a south Chicago “Community Organizer” over that of the AMA and their Hyppocratic Oath. I have a lot more faith in doctors than I do in politicians.
HisRoc, I was poking fun…digging on such an idiotic statement from President Obama that a Doctor would actually cut someone’s foot off to make a profit. I have a lot more faith in Doctors also.
Gotta work on my delivery.
His Roc,
At the risk of seeming cantankerous, MD isn’t the only state to border VA. If Hampton Roads loses doctors to NC, or the Valley to WV (admittedly less likely), the state is still worse off.
John Jackson,
My humble apologies. There are far too many trolls on these blogs, but we have to tolerate them least we become like the Lowell Felds and Miles Grants of the blogosphere.
D.J.,
I have insufficient data on NC and WVA. However, intuitively I have to believe that they are closer to the Commonwealth than to The Peoples’ Demokratic Paradise of DC or Merryland.
All of us truck drivers are maniacs. Let me quote HisRoc:
“When the doctor screws up on the operating table, he typically doesn’t have a bottle of vodka and a baggie of amphetamines in his office. If he does, then he gets crucified even worse than the intoxicated truck driver who rams a church van.”
We truck drivers are regularly subjected to both random alcohol and drug testing. How about the doctor?
Sorry, LD, but you were the one who put the comparison out there when there really isn’t one.
Transportation workers are randomly tested for drugs and alcohol for a good reason. In Risk Management terminology it is called “exposure.”
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