Damage Control

From Investors Business Daily:

Posted 11/7/2005
Legal Reform: Washington state has been losing doctors for years because it's become too costly to practice there. Voters have a chance to change that Tuesday.

The American Medical Association lists Washington as a "crisis" state. Physicians there, fed up with growing jury awards in malpractice cases and the rising costs of malpractice insurance, are leaving or cutting back their practices.

One-fourth of the state's family practitioners, for example, have dropped obstetrics in the last five years, reports the Washington Policy Center. And nearly half of physicians told the state medical association they have simply stopped offering some services.

One obstetrician said his medical liability insurance soared from roughly $10,000 a year in the mid-1990s to $74,000 last year — which is why he's restricting his practice to gynecology only. An orthopedic surgeon left the state because she was paying nearly $300,000 a year in malpractice premiums.

Those who aren't cutting back are saying "enough." The number of doctors who moved out of the state grew 31% from 1998 to 2002. And between 1996 and 2001, the number of doctors who retired increased 50%. The average age of retirement for physicians has fallen from 63 to 58.

This is nothing new. Doctors have been leaving states — like New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and West Virginia earlier in the decade — rather than pay the higher malpractice premiums.

The solution is a cap — not on insurance premiums, but on noneconomic damages that can be awarded by a jury. The Washington Policy Center points to research in other states that shows caps reduce the financial burden that malpractice lawsuits put on the already costly health care system.

The center also cites research that found that caps actually improve access to health care. How? Like everyone else, doctors vote with their feet, and they'd rather practice in states with sane limits on malpractice awards and premiums. Research shows that the number of doctors per resident is higher in states with caps.
Washington has no cap, but that could change if voters on Tuesday approve Initiative 330, sponsored by the Washington State Medical Association. It would place a reasonable $350,000 cap on noneconomic damages and curb the amount of dollars lawyers can squeeze out of the process (limiting the incentive to sue, sue, sue).
Trial lawyers are behind an alternative. Initiative 336 would restrict increases in malpractice insurance and revoke licenses for doctors with three or more malpractice convictions over 10 years.

Doctors like 330 better. So should their patients — and the voters.