Protect patients, not profits

A new group called the Coalition for Health Care Access and Liability Reform wants to take away our constitutional rights and ignore the medical injuries and deaths occurring in Maine. This is the latest tort reform effort targeting the wrong people, victims of medical malpractice, instead of those responsible for what health providers pay for malpractice insurance, insurance companies. Maine People’s Alliance’s 23,000 members call on the Maine Legislature to reject this latest attack on the civil justice system and focus on solutions that will truly address the problem of medical injuries and deaths.

The Coalition for Health Care Access and Liability Reform is telling Mainers that we might have the same problems with astronomical medical malpractice premium rates as experienced in other states. They want the Maine Legislature to pass “tort reform” measures to limit the ability of medical malpractice victims and their families to receive compensation for serious medical injuries and sometimes death. Maine People’s Alliance opposes this assault on our constitutional rights and sense of justice.

Tort reform is code language for taking away people’s legal rights. The coalition pushing tort reform wants to cap, or limit, the amount of noneconomic damages injured people can receive regardless of the amount of harm inflicted upon them. Noneconomic damages include all of the harm victims of medical malpractice suffer aside from their lost wages if they can no longer work, and their direct medical costs.

These damages include real life-altering injuries such as the loss of a limb or sight, the ability to walk, loss of fertility, permanent excruciating pain or horrible disfigurement. Noneconomic damages also attempt to compensate in some meaningful way for the loss a family may experience from a mother no longer able to care for her children, a husband who will never be able to hug his wife again, or the death of a child. Proponents of medical malpractice tort reform would have Mainers believe that these types of injuries are somehow less real or legitimate than lost wages or easily counted medical bills. What price would you place on your child’s life?

The truth is Maine has some of the lowest medical malpractice insurance rates in the country. According to the October 2004 Medical Liability Monitor, Maine had the seventh lowest rates of any state in the nation. In fact, the same analysis showed our rates were far lower than those of 21 states that have passed caps on noneconomic damages.

What the coalition hasn’t told Maine people is that study after study has found little to no connection between medical malpractice insurance premium rates and caps on noneconomic damages. The same issue of Medical Liability Monitor mentioned above found that states with caps on noneconomic damages have insurance premiums that are 9.8 percent higher on average than those for states without caps on such damages.

If caps don’t reduce medical malpractice insurance premium rates, why institute such harsh and unfair restrictions on people’s legal rights? The same reason Americans pay the most for health care of any nation in the world or the highest prices for prescription drugs – corporate greed and mismanagement. The Oct. 15, 2004 edition of Modern Physician magazine reported on a study that concluded, “The real drivers of the rise in premiums over the past four years have been low interest rates, a sour national economy and the legacy of overly aggressive pricing policies in the years before the ‘crisis’ began in late 2000…”

Evidence shows the insurance industry has recurring cycles of reckless undercutting of competitors supported by high investment income earned from millions of dollars in reserves followed by double-digit premium increases when investment earnings sour. Those insured can become subject to steep successive increases in insurance premiums when the insurance industry attempts to correct for their faulty pricing. This historical pattern recently occurred after the stock market bubble burst in 1999. Though Maine’s medical malpractice insurance premium increases have been much more modest than the experience in many other states, the coalition promoting medical malpractice tort reform would have you believe Maine is no different than the rest of the country.

We know the best approach to avoiding many diseases is prevention. The same approach should be applied to the practice of medicine. The secret many in the health care industry don’t want the public to know is how many mistakes are made every day that cause serious injury and sometimes death. An estimated 98,000 Americans die every year from medical errors and many more are seriously harmed according to The Institute of Medicine report, “To Err Is Human.” Don’t we have an obligation to do everything feasible to prevent medical errors?

The good news is Maine is attempting to address the root causes of medical errors through the Maine Quality Forum, part of our Dirigo Health reform plan passed in 2003. Two Maine People’s Alliance leaders serve on this group that is focused on improving the quality of medicine in Maine. As we improve quality and eliminate medical mistakes, medical malpractice insurance premiums will fall just like any other type of

insurance when fewer claims are made.

Health care providers struggle against insurance companies who attempt to tell them how to practice medicine, what they will be paid, and who among their patients will receive care. At Maine People’s Alliance, we acknowledge the thousands of Maine doctors, nurses and other health providers giving excellent care. Health care providers want to provide the best care possible for their patients. Doctors swear an oath to first and foremost “do no harm.” We urge the Coalition for Health Care Access and Liability Reform to join us in eliminating medical errors, not patients’ rights.

John Dieffenbacher-Krall is co-director of Maine People’s Alliance, a statewide citizen action group dedicated to defending our democracy and advancing economic, environmental, political, and social justice.