Guest Author
Some people have called the 2023 Legislative Session the “Session of the Century.”
So much got done. Tax reform, regulatory reform, and even tort reform.
Some chalked it up to good politics as Gov. Ron DeSantis prepared a strong record to run for President. Who cares? Good policy makes for good politics, and Florida was the beneficiary.
Those actions paved the way for a significant decrease in litigation, and the results have financially benefitted Florida’s working families, retirees and our small businesses.
Auto insurance rates are beginning to flatten and decline. It appears property insurance rates are beginning to flatten and decline as well, and recent news suggests that there are now more carriers looking at entering Florida’s market, which should put more downward pressure on insurance rates.
In other words, the little people of the “Free State of Florida” are better off because of lawsuit reform.
In the 2024 Legislative Session, a bill was filed to cap medical malpractice damages, specifically those related to pain and suffering. Unfortunately, it failed, but as a medical doctor, I saw it as a welcome sign.
Florida is suffering physician and specialty shortages, and anything we can do to make it more comfortable for physicians to practice here is good. Our rural communities and our seniors are vastly underserved with less access to care today than a decade ago, and we need to do everything in our power to bring more doctors and health care professionals into our state.
Unfortunately, this Legislative Session, it seems we are moving in the other direction with bills to loosen the cap on medical malpractice damages for pain and suffering, a subjective standard not tied to economic damages.
The cost of medical malpractice insurance is already going through the roof for health care professionals, and this hurts Florida’s ability to recruit nurses, doctors, and specialists. If there is any intentional malpractice, having access to the courts to seek economic damages is reasonable, but when we open the courts to those seeking reimbursement for pain and suffering, the sky is the limit on how much juries might award.
The truth is people die under the care of health care professionals every day. It is a deeply troubling aspect to an industry that seeks to preserve life at all costs. No doctor worth his or her oath would ever wish that a patient dies, but that is an aspect far beyond a doctor’s control. However, reimbursing people based on their level of grief is incalculable.
Ultimately, in this type of lawsuit, taxpayers, ratepayers and consumers are the ones who pay as litigation costs will be spread across all health care transactions. We must maintain financial predictability for our medical community so that physician recruitment and retention can increase, and we can be the healthiest state in the country.
