How ironic it is that an shameless, ambulance-chasing shyster like John Edwards is pushing health care reform. He is responible for doing more damage to health care than anyone else.
But here is some encouraging news...
http://www.protectpatientsnow.org/site/c.8oIDJLNnHlE/b.2267659/k.4872/A_Miracle_in_the_Making.htm
A Miracle in the Making
How Texas Became a Model for Medical Liability Reform
In the debate over medical liability reform, both sides cite academic studies to support their position. While we have many good studies to support our position, we at Protect Patients Now believe that real world examples trump theory every time.
In 2003, Texas voters passed Proposition 12, a constitutional amendment that locked in medical liability reform, including unlimited compensation for “economic” damages and reasonable limits on “non-economic damages.” In the three years since reform was passed, Texas has been transformed from a state in crisis to a model for national legislation that has been introduced in the U.S. Congress.
Today, those who support reform of our national medical liability system must often confront many of the same arguments leveled against Prop 12. For that reason, Protect Patients Now has assembled the information contained in the following report, examining the causes and effects of the medical liability crisis in Texas and documenting the dramatic turn-around that has been called a modern “Miracle in the Making.”1
The Crisis
Before Proposition 12 locked in medical liability reforms, Texas was a state in crisis.
Skyrocketing insurance premiums were forcing doctors to flee the state, quit medicine, or cut back on complex, life-saving procedures that carried a high risk of incurring a lawsuit.
The result was that patients across Texas were finding it increasingly difficult to access the specialized care they needed, when they needed it. Ambulances were being diverted because of a shortage of doctors. Many hospitals were unable to staff their emergency rooms.2 Two out of every three Texas counties had no obstetrician,3 forcing expectant mothers to travel long distances to deliver their babies and often forego prenatal care altogether. Half of all counties had no pediatrician to treat sick and injured children.4
At the height of the crisis, Texas ranked 48th out of the 50 states in physician manpower.5
Texas averaged just 152 MDs for every 100,000 people, versus a national average of 196.6
Hardest hit and most at risk were the critically ill, the poor, and those living in rural or medically underserved areas.
Ironically, the best-trained and most talented doctors also found themselves in the crosshairs of this crisis. Because the most highly trained doctors often perform the most highly specialized and high-risk procedures, they were frequently singled out as targets for lawsuits. Consequently, doctors began to reduce the scope of their practices to reduce their insurance costs and the risk of career-threatening lawsuits. This, in turn, escalated the access to care crisis.
Even as the state’s population expanded, patients saw disturbing declines in critical medical specialties such as neurosurgery, obstetrics, orthopaedic surgery, and hard-to-recruit children’s doctors specializing in newborns and premature infants.7
