Medical malpractice awards are exorbitant

The Ohio legislature should pass laws limiting how much money juries may award plaintiffs in medical malpractice lawsuits to end a vicious cycle of skyrocketing health care costs. Doctors must pay tens of thousands of dollars per year in malpractice insurance for insurance companies to have enough cash to pay plaintiffs who sue when a physician has made a mistake. Often, doctors choose to retire or practice medicine in places with lower fees, taking both their valuable services and patients’ health care options elsewhere.

Insurance companies amass pools of money, gathered from doctors to protect against, among other things, the possibility of being sued for a patient being treated incorrectly. When such cases come to trial, lawyers often ask for enormous sums beyond the original medical costs to compensate patients’ pain and suffering but also to line their own pockets. The insurance companies must pay out millions, then charge doctors more to recoup their losses. Doctors have to charge more, or refuse to do risky procedures. Patient care suffers.

Ohio Senate Bill 281, supported by the Ohio Department of Insurance, would limit damage awards in lawsuits, and bring balance to the malpractice cycle. California passed similar laws, which limit awards to $250,000 beyond the costs of the medical procedures. It is important to note that states without such reforms continue to have insurance cost problems, while states that cap plaintiffs’ damages do not. Ohio lawmakers owe it to state health care consumers—everyone—to pass Bill 281 and help bring down insurance costs.

With the election behind them, state lawmakers must act soon to pass tort reform laws and bring down doctors’ insurance costs. Many physicians have told the Ohio State Medical Association that if costs rise much more, they will stop practicing in 2003. It is too frightening to contemplate an Ohio where there are too few doctors, and fewer still willing to perform risky operations. State legislators should act and act decisively.

Legislators must stop violating the spirit of new law

The new McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law went into effect yesterday, but according to The Washington Post both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have been setting up low-profile ways to circumvent the law, a process that must stop immediately. Politicians are violating the spirit of the law and going back on their promises to reform the way their campaigns are funded.

McCain-Feingold limits the amount of “soft money” that individuals or companies may give to political parties. Those same parties are setting up committees and organizations that will accept unregulated, undisclosed contributions and funnel them to party coffers. Even worse, the systems are being developed with the full complicity of House and Senate leaders.

But as it stands, the shadow fund-raising techniques are completely legal.Campaign finance reform was a major issue during the summer, as Arizona Senator John McCain, the Republican voice in the bipartisan campaign to limit soft money, called for an end to huge political donations by special interest groups or corporations. At the time, legislators, particularly Democrats, agreed and took up his cause, with Republicans slowly coming on board. President Bush, who at first said he would veto any campaign finance measure placed on his desk, eventually relented and jumped aboard the bandwagon.

But as they were crafting the measure, lawmakers undoubtedly were plugging in weaknesses they knew they could exploit. They cynically were able to give the appearance of ensuring fairness in political campaigns while simultaneously designing ways to ensure their flow of money was not curtailed.

McCain has said he knows of the undercover fundraising operations and will work to fight them. The political parties, House and Senate leaders should make that job unnecessary by abiding by the spirit of the new law. They said they were in favor of limiting soft money through their votes, and if that is the case, they should act that way.