An innovative approach to the current medical malpractice crisis is sorely needed.

CHICAGO – Ah, the agonies and the ecstasies of New Hampshire’s presidential campaign trail.

Earlier this month, Democratic presidential candidate Dick Gephardt was asked what he would do about the “chicken” problem, if he were lucky enough to replace George W. Bush in the Oval Office.

The question had nothing to do with his stance on the invasion of Iraq, but a chicken problem that apparently affects millions of young Americans – stabbing at their psyches and withering their souls.

During Gephardt’s visit to Parkside Middle School in Manchester, N.H., eighth-grader John Pinard told the former House speaker that the nation’s school lunch program was awash with chicken: “Every day at lunch, we have chicken – chicken nuggets, chicken tenders, that kind of stuff. We’re sick of it. Can you help us under your plan?”

Never mind that at 14 years of age, Pinard isn’t old enough to vote in New Hampshire – and perhaps not even in less sterner places like Chicago and Palm Beach.

Gephardt, although caught off guard, gamely suggested that his educational proposals would pump $75 million into New Hampshire public schools – part of which could be used to add variety to school lunches.

When a Washington Post reporter asked later if he thought the chicken problem would become a presidential campaign issue, Gephardt replied, “It already is an issue.”

All well and good, I guess, but the “real” chicken problem in New Hampshire is the failure of Gephardt and the other eight Democratic presidential contenders to address the nation’s most pressing health-care problem – the medical malpractice crisis.

The Democratic hopefuls have kow-towed to the bullying AARP by pledging to provide a generous Medicare prescription drug benefit for seniors, including the three-quarters who don’t need it and are likely to be short-changed by any universal payer scheme.

But they’ve said precious little about medical malpractice crisis that currently is pillaging through 26 states – causing a mass exodus of frightened doctors to states like California that have passed meaningful tort reforms.

This epidemic of physician’s flight has been triggered by a juggernaught of class-action lawsuits filed by some of the nation’s wealthiest personal injury lawyers – often on behalf of “victims” who show no signs of illness.

In many states, the annual medical malpractice insurance premium paid by doctors now exceeds $120,000. In the fast-growing Las Vegas metropolitan area in Nevada premiums now are approaching $200,000 a year as lawyers cash in on jackpot justice. That’s five times higher than the average just two years ago.

In Pennsylvania, thousands of the state’s physicians recently closed their offices for a week to protest rising malpractice insurance premium that have doctors in some specialties paying out more than $200,000 a year for protection against the lawyers’ onslaught.

The crisis usually is portrayed as being chiefly about doctors, but the real losers are patients. As malpractice premiums continue to rise, more and more physicians elect to transfer their practices to other states and some, sadly, are simply leaving the profession. That means that patients are losing access to medical specialists and often are forced to travel for hours to find the doctor they need.

According to latest statistics from the respected research firm Jury Verdict Research, the average jury award in a medical malpractice case is about $3.5 million – a threefold jump since 1994. Fifty-two percent of all current medical malpractice awards now top $1 million, with a handful of lawyers usually walking off with upward of 60 percent of that for contingency fees and expenses.

All told, medical malpractice lawsuits have cost the U.S. economy more than $250 billion – money that could have been far spent improving the nation’s crumbling health-care system.

Earlier this month, the American Association of Health Plans and the New Hampshire Medical Society held a news conference in downtown Manchester challenging the presidential candidates to offer primary voters real plans to curb the high costs and disruptive effective of the medical malpractice crisis.

“When it comes to a meaningful debate, about rising health-care costs, voters deserve more than they have gotten so far,” said AAHP President and CEO Karen Ignagni. “The candidates need to take a stand on how to fix the broken medical malpractice system so patients can get the accountability they need.”

She’s right, but so far none of the Democratic candidates have gone out of their way to address the concerns she raised. That’s regrettable because recent national surveys show that 75 percent of Americans, including a sizable majority of Democrats, believe that excessive medical liability lawsuits are driving up the costs of health care and threatening their access to doctors.

It’s time the presidential candidates take care of their own “chicken” problem and start proposing solutions to the current medical malpractice crisis. This is a winning issue and one suspects that the first candidate to step away from the crowded field and address it openly and innovatively will rise swiftly in the polls.

As the two billboards the AAHP recently erected in downtown Manchester, pointedly argue, it’s high time to end “The Litigation Lottery” … it’s time to “tell the candidates to stop the game.”

Gretchen Randall is a senior partner at Winningreen LLC, www.winningreen.com, a consulting firm in Chicago.


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