A Letter to Jim Greenwood Regarding the HEALTH Act of 2002
April 19, 2002
The Honorable Jim Greenwood
U.S. House of Representatives
Rayburn House Office Building
Independent Avenue & S. Capitol St., SW
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Representative Greenwood:
I am writing to express The Doctors Company’s strong support for your bill that proposes to adopt California’s medical liability statutes for all states and would be known as the "Help Efficient, Accessible, Low Cost Timely Health Care (HEALTH) Act of 2002."
As you may know, The Doctors Company is California's largest national physician-owned medical malpractice insurance company. We currently insure over eight thousand physicians in California and a total of twenty-four thousand in the fifty states. As Californians, we are well aware that we are blessed with medical malpractice liability statutes (MICRA), which provide stability against excessive awards in our state. MICRA is not an experiment. We have twenty-five years of experience with this legislation. We know that MICRA has allowed reasonable malpractice insurance rates while still protecting the interests of patients.
MICRA encourages more rapid settlement when indemnity payment is appropriate because the lottery factor has been eliminated. It is a fact that claims close 20% faster in California than the rest of the nation.
We know that MICRA does not impede access to attorneys. California was and remains a litigious state, and the frequency of malpractice suits in California is one and a half times the national average. We know that under MICRA, injured patients retain a higher portion of their awards than in other states. Moreover, we know that even with MICRA, the average cost of a malpractice settlement in California has risen faster than inflation, faster even than the cost of health care. It seems clear that the only constituency not to benefit from MICRA is the trial lawyers themselves.
Over the past several years, a number of physicians in states without effective tort statutes have had to abandon or substantially change their practices because of skyrocketing malpractice rates. Access to health care has been compromised. If society wishes to have no limits on liability, it must accept no limits on premiums, and ultimately, no limits on the cost of health care. This cycle makes access to even basic access all the more difficult for our most vulnerable citizens. This tort tax comes directly from funds that should be going into, not coming out of, our health care system.
The Doctors Company believes that MICRA should be a model for the nation. To this end, we strongly support your federal legislative proposal. Only cooperative bi-partisan efforts to solve one of the nation's pressing problems have a chance of success.
Sincerely,
Richard E. Anderson, M.D.
Chairman of the Board
REA/amv
