Bush and Florida senate republicans turn backs on injured patients

The battle over medical malpractice in Florida ended on August 13, 2003 with passage of a compromise bill that caps damages sustained by the most seriously injured patients.  The compromise ended a serious feud between Governor Jeb Bush and Senate republicans that saw Bush urging republican donors to stop giving money to noncooperative senators while those same senators began issuing subpoenas and taking sworn testimony from malpractice insurance executives that revealed that insurance industry claims of a malpractice "crisis" in Florida were grossly exaggerated.

Bush called the legislature into special session three times this summer to address this issue.  Both the state Senate and House are controlled by republicans, and Bush was able to obtain House approval of a $250,000 cap on noneconomic damages without any trouble.  In the Senate, however, questions were asked about the true extent of the "crisis," and senators argued that malpractice "reform" needed to be studied further.  This prompted Bush to threaten to cut off campaign contributions to the mutinous senators and even to oppose their reelection.  In turn, senators began questioning insurance executives who, under oath, admitted that doctors were not leaving the state in droves, as originally alleged, and that malpractice insurance remained a profitable business.  Remarkable, the insurance executives even admitted that the proposed $250,000 cap on damages would not result in lower premiums for doctors.

The compromise worked out during the legislature's third special session of the summer will cap noneconomic damages at $500,000 for any claim against a physician and $750,000 for any claim against a medical facility.  Curiously, the bill caps noneconomic damages at $150,000 if the patient is injured in a hospital emergency room.   In spite of testimony this summer in which insurance executives admitted that a $250,000 cap would not necessarily result in lower premiums for doctors, Governor Bush assured the voters and physicians that premiums would go down.