Emotions Run Strong As State Considers Medical Malpractice Cap
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Governor Cuomo's plan to cap medical malpractice claims faces an uncertain future in the state Legislature, which is now the object of intense lobbying from competing interests, both for and against. NY1's Josh Robin filed the following report.State lawmakers visited the Lowes Regency Hotel on Park Avenue Friday to hear hospital executives tell them about the burden of malpractice costs. But before they entered, they first had to see pictures of young Jake Brower: a week before his brain surgery seven years ago for a benign cyst, then after.
"We're gonna sell out these little kids, and we're gonna sell out the victims of medical malpractice," said Jake Brower's father, John Brower.
The Browers received $13.3 million from the hospital and surgeons they say are behind the fungal infection that will leave Jake requiring around the clock care for the rest of his life.
"And I think that if hospitals and doctors practiced medicine better and that they employ doctors to practice medicine better then they could contain the costs of medical malpractice because they wouldn't have as many lawsuits," Brower said.
"Last year, Maimonides spent $41 million on malpractice. This year, even though we became safer, we're spending $46 million, so that's a five percent increase," said Maimonides Medical Center CEO Pamela Brier.
Malpractice premiums contribute to hospitals cutting back or even closing and force doctors to reconsider careers, especially away from the most litigious of specialities, like obstetrics.
More babies are born at Maimonides than at any hospital across the state. But that comes at a price. In fact, the hospital says it loses $1,500 for every birth there.
That has a state commission recommending a fund for neurologically-impaired infants, and more controversially, a cap on what a jury can award for pain and suffering. It has Governor Andrew Cuomo's blessing, but not of some fellow Democrats.
"Tort reform or challenges to civil litigation rights. Serious concern about protecting harmed patients," said State Senator Liz Krueger.
Many, like the Browers, say hidden expenses of care will well exceed caps.
"They have rights too. They have the rights to quality of life and they have the right to live a life," Brower said.
Not surprisingly, there is another opinion.
"Their pain and suffering may well be boundless. And this society I don't think can afford to compensate them in a boundless way," Brier said.