Center for America

  Pocketbook Impact of Lawsuit Abuse

October 31, 2007

 

Lawsuit Abuse Against Doctors

Creates Medical Crisis in 42 States
and Huge Extra Costs for Companies

New CFA Report Documents the Financial Stake

for Business in Reforming State Medical Liability Laws

 

"In its new report, Medical Crisis: A Pocketbook Matter for Employers, the Center for America reveals the shocking statistics behind the health care crisis in our nation," said John Engler (below), President of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and former Governor of Michigan.

"CEOs, small business owners, and top executives will learn that patient access to health care directly affects the cost of employer-paid health insurance. When a hostile legal environment chokes the health care profession in a state, insurers raise premiums or simply stop providing coverage," continued Engler. 

"Physicians leave the state or limit their practices. Hospitals and critical care facilities shut down, stranding many communities without critical medical services. The human toll is terrifyingly clear. The cost for employers is equally and unacceptably clear. In states that fail to embrace common sense legal reform, employers face an ever-mounting threat of health care-related litigation."

"Here is the fact: States that have expansive medical liability laws on their books have driven doctors and healthcare facilities out of business through sky-high malpractice insurance rates and predatory tactics of the plaintiff’s bar,” said Dan Pero, (right), President of CFA. “Without basic legal reforms that protect patients and provide relief for the health care community, patients suffer and businesses are left holding the tab.”

“The connection is crystal-clear,” Pero went on. “In states where health care is protected with a fair legal system, patient access to quality care improves, and costs come down – for employers and employees alike. Business and health care are tied together in a common cause – a healthy legal system that provides fair and predictable justice.”

 

Click Here to Download the Report

Featured Multimedia for Use on Your Website

Governor Haley Barbour (R) describes how rampant medical liability lawsuit abuse was driving away doctors and closing facilities until Mississippi enacted legal reform in 2004.

Governor Joe Manchin (D) describes how liability lawsuit abuse in West Virginia was driving up insurance rates and costing West Virginians millions until new legal reform laws were passed in 2003 and 2005.

Dr. James Tayoun, the founding member of Patients and Physicians Alliance (PAPA) describes, from his perspective as a doctor, how lawsuit abuse in Pennsylvania against the medical community has wreaked havoc on the quality of medical care and driving doctors to others states.

Ken Kilpatrick, Director of Education for PAPA, provides first-hand stories about the compelling need to reform the medical liability systems that dramatically affect our families, friends and employees. 

Dr. Mark Rabinowitz, an internist from Philadelphia and a member of PAPA discusses the impact on patients who must search for doctors when they have a medical crisis and how this affects patient health.

 

Click Here to Download the Report

 

 

The Center for America mission is to educate, motivate and empower the public to support state liability reforms to end lawsuit abuse.    www.centerforamerica.org Original material © 2007 Center for America, 600 South Walnut, Lansing, MI  48933.  Dan Pero, President. 

 

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