Senate Defeats Federal Medical Malpractice Reform Bill
[Posted 05/11/06]

The United States Senate on Monday voted down two flawed federal medical malpractice reform bills. The first (S. 22) would have capped noneconomic damages at $250,000 for all physicians, and separately capped noneconomic damages for hospitals and other health care institutions at $250,000 to $500,000 (depending on the total number of institutions named in the suit); the second (S. 23) would have capped damages only in cases involving obstetricians, who have been especially hard hit by malpractice rates.

The malpractice reform bills were modeled after Texas’s $750,000 “stacked” cap. While the Texas law has provided some relief to physicians who previously had no protection at all, CMA is concerned that it is too soon to know whether the Texas law (enacted in 2003) is adequate. CMA is particularly concerned that the $750,000 joint cap could create incentives to keep physicians in lawsuits to extract a settlement even when the liability clearly lies with the hospital.

While the bill was a significant improvement over last year’s failed attempt at federal malpractice reform (S. 354), CMA did not support this bill. CMA believes that California’s MICRA—with its single $250,000 cap—is a far better law and that any federal malpractice law must contain a “no federal preemption” clause to protect MICRA, a law that has stabilized insurance premiums for physicians and protected access to doctors in California since 1975.

Contact: Elizabeth McNeil, 415/882-3376 or emcneil@cmanet.org.