February 11, 2005

Liability Costs Hinder Patients’ Access to Health Care

By Congressman Joe Pitts

"After speaking with numerous specialists I am convinced that he would be living today had the trauma center been open. So in our family… it is clearly understood that he died not because of a car accident, but because of the crisis within our nation's health care delivery system.”

Mary Rasar recalled the painful and tragic story of her father’s death from injuries sustained in a car accident during a hearing this week of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health.  Liability costs had forced the area’s trauma center to close, leaving no surgeons to care for her father. 

In Pennsylvania we are very familiar with this problem.  A recent Issues PA/Pew Poll released in August 2004 provides alarming data.  One in four Pennsylvania residents say someone in their family has had to change doctors in the past year because of the rising cost of malpractice insurance.  This number includes 16 percent who said they had to find a new doctor because their previous doctor was moving his or her practice out of state because of increasing malpractice insurance costs.

About one in three residents of Southeastern PA (31 percent) and one in four residents of Southwestern PA (26 percent) say their family has had to switch doctors because of rising malpractice insurance costs.  Fewer people – about one in five (19 percent) – in the South Central region say they have had this same experience.

The continued deterioration of the medical liability market in Pennsylvania threatens the viability of hospitals, health systems and physician practices.  Doctors are fleeing the state or retiring early either because they can’t get coverage, or because they want to avoid paying exorbitant premiums, so they can actually make a living practicing medicine.  These are not negligent or reckless doctors.  Most are law abiding and skilled physicians and specialists.

One doctor told me that his practice has been trying unsuccessfully to hire other doctors for three years.  Because doctors are leaving the state, there is more demand for his services.  However, they cannot hire new physicians, because, he says, “The word is out that Pennsylvania is a bad place to practice medicine.”  At the same time one of his partners has had to stop performing certain procedures because of the malpractice insurance rates.

One hospital President says the medical liability crisis is a main reason why patient access problems are occurring throughout the state and "has caused experienced doctors to leave the area, especially neurosurgeons, orthopedic and general surgeons, obstetricians and cardiologists. Few young doctors are coming in to take their place, and the result is a shortage of doctors."

Doctors in these specialties, not surprisingly, are most likely to be sued – and pay the highest liability insurance premiums.  Even more frightening, we may start having serious accident victims facing hospitals with no trauma surgeons.

Chester County ’s Brandywine Hospital invested millions of dollars to build a new trauma unit.  However, liability premiums closed that unit down and now patients are flown elsewhere for emergency surgeries. 

I have heard many arguments from all sides of this debate.  I agree that there is a delicate balance to strike between making sure victims receive just compensation and are not prevented from bringing suit against those who have done wrong.  However, these cases are preventing many others in our nation from receiving the health care they need.  We cannot allow them to imperil our entire health care system.

In the past, I have supported a plan to address this problem.  This legislation centers around a cap on non-economic damages awarded in legal settlements, while allowing unlimited awards for economic damages (lost salary, medical expenses, etc.).  This idea is one of the single most important ways we can lower the cost for medical liability reform and maintain access to essential health care services.

At the end of the day, this legislation is not about doctors, or insurance companies, or trial lawyers – it’s about mothers having places to safely deliver their babies, and accident victims having a nearby trauma center to save their lives.

This is one of our top issues in Congress this year.  I strongly support moving this legislation. 

Congressman Pitts is a member of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health.

#  #  #