Thursday, March 06, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Lawsuit reform efforts debated
Medical malpractice insurance remains issue for lawmakers
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CARSON CITY -- A Senate panel has shelved a doctors-backed initiative petition on medical malpractice lawsuit reform, and it probably will head to Nevada voters next year.
But the Judiciary Committee will continue discussion of a nearly identical bill that gives lawmakers more time for analysis and freedom to make amendments, Judiciary Chairman Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, said Wednesday.
The "Keep Our Doctors In Nevada" petition and Senate Bill 97 both would tighten caps on malpractice pain-and-suffering awards and limit lawyer fees. Both are intended to bring down high medical malpractice premium rates.
But the four Republicans and three Democrats on the Judiciary panel have expressed skepticism that fixes are needed so soon after Nevada's $350,000 pain-and-suffering caps were enacted in October.
They're also working to find legislation that more directly pulls down insurance rates.
Sen. Dennis Nolan, R-Las Vegas, is the only Judiciary member so far to publicly support fresh lawsuit reforms. Nolan also said he favors the bill over the petition, which must be either rejected or passed "as is" by mid-March.
State law dictates that if lawmakers don't pass the petition, it goes on next year's ballot. Doctors have pledged to campaign against their own initiative if the Legislature passes SB97.
Lawmakers heard from both sides of the lawsuit reform debate Wednesday.
A doctor-owned malpractice insurer told senators that new lawsuit reforms would add legal questions to existing Nevada laws that have not been tested yet in state courts.
James Wadhams of Nevada Mutual Insurance Co. termed last year's caps "significant."
State Insurance Commissioner Alice Molasky-Arman told lawmakers that not enough time has elapsed to judge effects of existing caps.
Lawmakers also heard from obstetricians who said they've seen colleagues flee the state due to unaffordable premiums, and from malpractice victims who said they'd have been unable to find a lawyer to take their case if attorney fees were limited.
