Medical "Tort Reform" Goes to Senate Floor

By Gary Zuckett
February 7, 2003

House Bill 2122, the Medical Malpractice & Welfare for Insurance and Doctors Act, was improved by the Senate Judiciary and Finance committees and now is under consideration by the whole body. "Improved" is a relative term. One observer commented the bill had gone from "Gawd awful to just plain awful."

Last week Judiciary raised caps on wrongful death and loss of limb to $500,000, eliminated the periodic (future) payments of damages, linked funding of the Patient Injury Compensation Fund before the elimination of join liability, and sunsets (phases-out) all caps if the Docs fail to start their own insurance co. Draconian limits on liability that will enrich insurance industries and further hurt victims of malpractice remain in the bill.

This week, members of Senate Finance removed windfall tax breaks for Docs and assessed doctors, hospitals and insurance one time fees around $10 million to help fund the medical mutual insurance program. Supporters of welfare doctors are vowing to reinsert the lost tax giveaways through floor amendments on Friday.

The governor is even calling on us to feel sorry for the Docs (who average 600% over median income in the state) and call our Senators to have a tax break put back in that could eliminate personal WV income taxes for many physicians. Maybe the governor needs a lesson in economics? He certainly needs some new advisors.

In it most final form, this bill will NOT: lower doctors liability insurance, improve patient safety or medical outcomes or reduce the occurrence of medical malpractice! It will, however, allow the medical and insurance industries to increase their profits at the expense of those patients that our medical system kills or injures.

Last minute update: The Senate knuckled-under to pressure by the Medical Assoc Friday to reinstate a $7.5 million tax break for docs to be deducted from their provider tax payments, an amount that represents an additional 10% of their individual malpractice premiums and 5% of their "tail" insurance costs. Then they suspended the rules and passed the bill out of the Senate and sent it back to the House. Next week, the House must decide whether or not it agrees with the Senate version. If not, a conference committee made up of member of both houses will work out the differences between the two versions. If the house concurs, then the bill has passed the legislature and goes on to the governor for his signature.

Stay tuned next week for the final chapter in the fight to decrease your rights to access and remedies in the courts if injured by the medical profession.

Stay further tuned, because new bills have been introduced to provide "tort reform" relief to all negligent industries and businesses when they sell you defective products, poison your water, run over you with overweight coal trucks, or other wise run amok. More on this next week….