Governor Rendell Paints Rosey Election Eve Malpractice Crisis Scenario
Pennsylvania's Governor Rendell paints rosey scenario to win doctors' votes as he protects trial lawyers who litigate against them.
Philadelphia, PA (PRWEB) January 4, 2006
As his governorship turns the corner toward the new election season, Governor Ed Rendell claims Pennsylvania has “turned the corner” on its medical liability crisis. Yet, Pennsylvania remains in crisis. Thousands of physicians have been forced out of business due to skyrocketing medical liability premiums that have resulted from rampant frivolous malpractice lawsuits. Moreover, most student physicians leave Pennsylvania upon completion of their training because they cannot afford to practice here.
“Governor Rendell’s painted scenario might be rosey, but Pennsylvania’s physicians and patients are still stuck by the thorns of reality,” said Politically Active Physicians Association President John Salvo. “An increasing number of patients are losing access to health care because we are losing doctors.”
The governor claims 34,000 physicians pay into the MCARE Fund—which he says proves the crisis is easing. But he fails to disclose of those 34,000, thousands are nurse midwives, medical schoolteachers, hospitals and others.
Governor Rendell has a balancing act he must perform to be reelected: protect the trial lawyers who substantially fund his candidacy and win the powerful voting block of doctors against whom those lawyers litigate. And so, rather than seek meaningful tort reforms such as reasonably limiting jury awards and attorney fees, the governor hides behind the smoke and mirrors of the MCARE bandage.
“Rendell’s campaign to physicians from the back pocket of trial lawyers is an insult to the patients of Pennsylvania who desperately need the tort reforms he has purposely failed to provide,” said Salvo.
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