A recent study in the Journal of Patient Safety up to 440,000 Americans die yearly as the result of medical negligence.
If a drunk driver crashed into you killing your child and you later discovered that a state law now blocks you from obtaining an attorney to take legal action against the driver wouldn't you be outraged? And if you later discovered that the driver did not have to stop at DUI checkpoints wouldn't you be further infuriated?
In 1975 malpractice insurance companies created a phony insurance crisis then backed the MICRA law that passed and capped non-economic "pain and suffering" damages to $250K without inflation adjustment. Except in a rare punitive damage award this is the only award that can be paid in a wrongful death malpractice case for nearly 20 million Californians who do not have any job income(children, retirees, disabled, unemployed, ect), search on "caps harm California" and "protectconsumerjustice org how micra came to be".
Attorneys will not take these cases because the MICRA law also limits the attorney award to about 30%(BPC 6146) or $75K of any maximum $250K award and attorney and medical expert costs in a malpractice case can quickly exceed $75K
The MICRA cap and low non-economic damage caps in other states have enabled malpractice insurance companies to earn billions in profits by eliminating their monetary liability in these cases. It's no wonder insurance companies have spent tens of millions to defeat Prop 46 which doesn't even eliminate the cap, only adjusts it for inflation.
California malpractice insurance companies profit an incredible 70 cents for every dollar collected in malpractice premiums which leaves plenty of room for an increase in malpractice payouts without a rate increase to doctors. 22 other states do not have a non-economic damage cap and medical insurance rates are not any higher in those states nor are there shortages of physicians in those states.
Since 1988, Prop 103 has regulated doctors malpractice insurance premiums and can not be increased unless justified to the Insurance Commissioner.
Prop 46 also includes testing doctors for drug and alcohol which is done in many other occupations such as in the transportation industry to increase safety.
And Prop 46 requires physicians to check the state's existing and secure DOJ CURES prescription drug database before prescribing narcotics and other addictive drugs to curb doctor-shopping drug abusers, to prevent over-dose deaths and to reduce harmful behavior, search on "prnewswire prop 46 requiring physicians to check statewide prescription drug database".
PLEASE VOTE YES ON PROPOSITION 46 for Patient Safety and Patient Justice.
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