Please take a couple of minutes to read this and share. This means everything to me and I really need everyones support and help please!! Vote YES on 46!! ~ I’d like to make a statement about Prop 46 currently on the California ballot to be decided in November. I have some experience with this issue and I’d like to offer my perspective. Californians voted in 1975 to make serious limitations on compensation related to medical malpractice. The Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA) was intended to lower the malpractice insurance premiums paid by doctors and by doing that.....reduce medical costs. However, the far-reaching law did not alleviate the problem. Over the next decade, to 1986, premiums did not fall, but continued to rise by a whopping 26% annually. Since the act failed to serve its purpose, the people of California in 1988 enacted some of the toughest insurance rate regulation in the country to stem the rising costs of insurance. Finally rates began to fall, but nothing was done about the former limitations on the allowance caps. The insurance companies would have you believe that higher pain and suffering caps are not needed because the economic damages are not capped. Medical bills and lost wages are still allowed, up to the actual, provable amount, so why compensate an injured party further? I know why. Three years ago a surgical team made a mistake in a routine surgery I had. They left an item inside me. It’s a far more common mistake than you think....or than it should be. There are so many procedures and checks and counts and actual equipment design changes that are intended to make this particular mistake a non-event. It is the one mistake that a surgical team can make that doesn’t put one ounce of culpability on the patient. Unconscious on the table, I couldn’t ask if they were sure they had counted everything before closing me up. Compounding the error, for an entire year the doctors at my HMO kept giving me antibiotics and pain killers and sending me home, never once considering that the problem may have been larger and related to recent surgery. 3 years and 6 surgeries later (including a stay in ICU because my body was in complete failure at one point) they have told me they can’t fix it completely. I’ve lost my entire colon and have continued problems that will affect my life forever. For the rest of my life I will deal with their mistake. The lawyers are fighting it out now. They’ve been fighting for a year now, even with the caps in place. They fight because, even though there is zero culpability on my part, the HMO still doesn’t want to pay for their mistake. They will probably pay their lawyers more to fight the issue than it would cost to just settle the case and pay a fair amount to me. Lost wages are hard to determine in an industry where you don’t get a regular paycheck; and medical bills? I’m being forced to accept the care of the SAME doctors and institution that injured me because they are essentially doing it without charging me and no other doctor will touch me for fear of being included in the suit. My insurance company dumped me at the beginning. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act...I will be able to at least count on being insured again. This issue is being advertised as trial lawyers vs. doctors.... so there is no sympathy from the average person to change the law. The people asking you to vote no on 46 are telling you that it will increase medical costs and affect you, the average person, in negative ways you can’t possibly fathom. It is NOT about doctors vs. lawyers.... it is about PATIENTS vs. HMOs and managed care mega corporations. The goal, as always is to emphasize less cost and forget about the accountability of doctors and medical professionals in what they do. The insurance companies don’t seem to mind putting a million dollars in the hands of their attorneys to fight a case that they can’t defend....rather than pay it out to the patient who is still suffering the damages and trying to rebuild a life that will be forever different and plagued with medical issues. The arrogance is staggering; the finger-pointing is Olympic level sport. Meanwhile, I plan my work around what the doctors want to do to “try” to fix my problems, or at least alleviate the pain and suffering I have to deal with. It looks like it’s about the money for the patient. I can assure you, it is not. I would give anything to have my body back and my health; to be able to participate fully in life the way I used to. But my life is changed....forever changed....and I have to accept it and adapt. It seemed like a good idea, in 1975, to limit the compensation that juries were handing out. The settlements were outrageous and insurance premiums just as much so. But history shows that the intent of the original law was not realized. Proposition 46 is not lifting the caps, just increasing them to account for inflation and cost of living, and why shouldn’t doctors be held to the same accountability as police officers, fire officials and other health and safety organizations that require regular drug testing. If we require our celebrity athletes to prove they’re not impaired while playing games...why not the doctor and staff that hold your very life in their hands. I ask that you consider this ballot initiative and look past the vast sums of money being cast out by the HMOs and insurance companies to defeat it. It’s about you, and me, and everyone who puts their faith in a medical team that they “will first do no harm”. Consider this issue before it hits you or someone you love. Thanks for your time.
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 15:46:47 +0000
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