Texas vs. Florida
September 9, 2008
There’s probably no more dramatic demonstration of effective tort reform in action than Texas’ constitutional amendment capping non-economic damages (i.e. pain and suffering) to $250,000. Since Texas voters passed Prop. 12 in 2003, the Lone Star State’s largest medical liability carrier has seen the number of lawsuit filings cut in half. Liability insurance, which before Prop. 12 was driving physicians out of state, has declined by 25 percent, and so many doctors are applying for medical licenses that there’s a serious backlog. Whole areas of the state that were once under-served – primarily poor and Hispanic regions – are seeing specialists come and set up practice for the first time. Overall, as this article in the AMA News details (subscription required), the state’s supply of neurosurgeons has jumped 12%.
It’s instructive to compare what’s been called the “Texas Miracle” with the deepening mire in Florida, where trial lawyers still have the upper hand, and showing up at the ER has been compared to playing Russian roulette, because of the shortage of neurosurgeons and other specialists. Trauma centers across the state are periodically forced to shut down because they don’t have the necessary specialists on call, as happened in February when Bayfront Medical Center in Pinellas Country had to start shipping its acutely injured patients to Tampa for treatment.
Naturally the patients sue when this doesn’t turn out so well, and Tenet Healthcare Corp just paid out $2 million for a Boca Raton woman who died after two of its hospitals couldn’t find a neurosurgeon to treat her stroke.
Not really what you’d call a rational health care policy, but clearly it’s working well for the trial lawyers.
Posted by Dan Pero in the categories: Florida, Medical Liability, Texas, Tort Reform
One Response to “Texas vs. Florida”
[...] Dan Pero has more comparing Florida to Texas’ legal climate for doctors at American Courthouse here. [...]