[ OUR OPINION ]
DOCTORS are declaring a crisis in the soaring cost of malpractice insurance, and President Bush has renewed his prescription for the problem -- a limitation on jury awards for "pain and suffering." Award ceilings seem to have been effective in Hawaii and 20 other states that have imposed them, and a national limit would make sense. Jury award limits
moderate insurance costs
THE ISSUE President Bush has proposed a ceiling of $250,000 in jury awards for pain and suffering in medical malpractice cases.
The rising liability rates mainly affect doctors engaged in riskier specialties -- emergency medicine, internal medicine, general surgery, obstetrics and gynecology. Premiums range from a few thousand dollars to $200,000 a year or more and have risen 30 percent to 40 percent during the last two years.
The president says the increases in medical malpractice premiums are driving doctors out of some states and contributing to the rising cost of health care. "Excessive jury awards will continue to drive up insurance costs, will put good doctors out of business or run them out of your community, and will hurt communities like Scranton, Pa.," Bush said in a speech to physicians and health-care administrators at Scranton.
Bush's proposal is modeled after a 1975 California law that limits noneconomic awards to $250,000. His proposed limit would not affect compensation for economic losses such as lost income or medical expenses. His proposal also would limit punitive damages to "reasonable" amounts and provide payment of awards to be made over a period of time instead of all at once.
Hawaii legislators enacted a $375,000 ceiling on pain-and-suffering awards eight years ago and is among eight states, including California, that the American Medical Association says are not affected by the current crisis. The AMA says 12 states are experiencing the crisis and 30 other states show signs that they are headed in that direction.
The focus in Congress will be on the California ceiling. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., plans to introduced malpractice liability legislation based on that state's law, crediting it with keeping California's premiums below the national average. Some consumer groups credit insurance regulations that were adopted in 1988 for the moderation.
The House passed a milder version of Bush's proposal last year but it was rejected in the Senate by a 57-42 vote. The key backer in the Senate will be the new Republican leader, Dr. Bill Frist, but the proposal will face stiff opposition. Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., a 2004 presidential candidate and former trial lawyer, argues that insurance companies increased malpractice premiums to make up for money they lost in the stock market, where the industry invests the premiums.
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