Illinois Senators Add Insult to Injury with Medical Malpractice Tort Reform Bill
by Cliff Horwitz, Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer

Five percent of the doctors who have been sued for medical malpractice in the last fifteen years account for over one-third of all litigation costs, proving a few bad apples are responsible for the spoil. (Chicago Tribune 05/01/05)

Wearing a mask of reform and fairness, a shameful majority of senators appear to have given their support for Senate bill 256 and House bill 4074; measures that would devastate those who have been injured by medical malpractice and negligence.

Non-economic damages however, are meant to cover the emotional, physical and non-medical hardships, as well as, the loss of a “normal” life as a result of an injury. Under bill 256, from disfigurement to blindness, brain damage and even death, our current legislature will put a value on your life, or that of a loved one; a cap of $250,000 from a physician's insurance, and $500,000 from a hospital's liability carrier. For severely injured patients, non-economic awards mean the difference between barely surviving, or not.

Insurance companies have been advertising into our living roo ms through the television and newspaper a well-documented lie. They connect skyrocketing and outrageous malpractice insurance premiu ms to the cost of Jury verdicts for pain and suffering. Having heard the lie over and over again can be convincing. Buying into and furthering the lie, Illinois senators are voting to punish or destroy the rights of patients in all cases of medical malpractice and negligence, no matter how extreme or severe the injury. The bill will punish women, children and minorities the most; those who have low incomes, or no income as non-economic awards also cover lost wages. The lower you are on the economic poll, the less the insurance company for a physician or hospital has to pay.

Fueled by political pressure from the malpractice insurance industry who has committed financial rape and tyranny over healthcare providers for decades, physicians, hospitals and medical corporations continue to support the lie. The lie serves a great purpose. They have long complained that high malpractice premiums were the byproduct of lawsuits without merit that resulted in unfairly high awards by juries. This is profoundly untrue and has been proven by the government's own Congressional Budget Office.

The number of malpractice lawsuits filed in the state of Illinois has not risen, but have remained about the same in the last five years. As for high awards granted by juries being the rule, more than the exception, the average claim in 2004 was 20% less than during 2003, with total clai ms down another 10% over the same time period. The national average for economic damages is down as well, most awards representing $50,000 -- not exactly the millions the insurance industry would have us believe.

Clearly the only real winner in medical malpractice tort reform is the insurance industry, who despite their clai ms of loss from lawsuits, reported higher earnings than any other time in the industry's history during 2004 as a result of dramatic increases in premiu ms to physicians and hospitals – including those states who have implemented tort reform legislation. Profits after clai ms in the state of Illinois were roughly $270 million for 2004.

Yet, Illinois legislators refuse to limit insurance companies or their attorneys in any way, shape or form before they eliminate benefits to the most seriously injured. Their short sidedness is astounding and further hurts those who have already endured harm. They won't limit insurance carriers FIRST because they cannot fight the powerful insurance lobbies, which are increasingly running this country and overcharging physicians.

To find out more about this issue, read the full editorial at http://www.horwitzlaw.com or listen to a candid interview featuring Cliff Horwitz with host Rosemary Roberts of The Patient's Voice online radio show.

To contact your Legislators, visit the General Assembly's website at: http://www.ilga.gov/ .

Cliff Horwitz welcomes your comments regarding this article and can be reached at: email, or by calling ( 312) 372-8822.

To read more editorials by Cliff Horwitz, visit the Library at Horwitz, Horwitz & Associates

Horwitz, Horwitz & Associates, LTD
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An Illinois Appellate court refused to allow corporate defendants to profit by turning a blind eye towards worker safety. 

In what can only be described as a landmark case, a jury awarded former welder, Lawrence Elam, $1M (one million dollars) in damages finding that he developed Parkinson's disease because of exposure to welding fumes. 

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