It looks like Illinois is getting caps on malpractice awards. At least until they are ruled unconstitutional. I've never thought awards in malpractice lawsuits were more than a tiny drop in the bucket when it comes to what is driving soaring medical casts. And I have even discovered that lawsuits have little to do with higher malpractice insurance premiums (here and here).
The one thing I've always wondered about this though, is just how effective can caps be? Even if you believe runaway jury awards are a problem, I'm thinking caps don't go very far. I mean, caps here in Illinois will not touch the first $500,000 ($1,000,0000 in suits against hospitals) in non-economic damage awards and, of course, there are still the economic damages. Is the money above and beyond this enough to really make a difference to doctors? I doubt it.
Anyway, the new Illinois legislation also includes items that likely will help things some, like more insurance regulation and providing a place on the internet to look up doctors' malpractice history. I'd like to keep these items but dump the caps.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment