Trial lawyers begin collecting signatures for anti-MICRA ballot initiative December 3, 2013 General Advocacy, MICRA, Professional Liability, Medical Malpractice 0 Driven by greed and the promise of inflated attorney fees, California trial lawyers have renewed their fight to lift the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA) cap on speculative, non-economic damages, presenting ballot language that seeks to more than quadruple the maximum award for non-economic damages to roughly $1.1 million. If successful, these efforts would be devastating to California’s health care system. More meritless lawsuits will lead to reduced patient access to our health care professionals – and fewer options for affordable, quality health care – especially in rural and underserved communities. From Redding to San Diego, canvassers working to support the trial lawyers’ anti-MICRA ballot language have hit the streets, and have reportedly been gathering signatures at an alarming rate. As expected, the signature gatherers are framing the initiative as an effort to ensure patient safety through mandatory drug testing of physicians, largely ignoring the deceptive and greed-fueled provisions that would see MICRA gutted of its historic reforms and patient protections. "It's a time-honored political technique in the California initiative process, the bait-and-switch," said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, who teaches at the University of Southern California's School of Public Policy, in a recent interview with the San Francisco Chronicle. Despite being collected through misdirection, every signature gathered puts the trial lawyers’ initiative one step closer toward the November 2014 ballot. There is no doubt that physicians understand how catastrophic a measure like this would be for access to affordable health care. To win this fight, voters, our patients – those we interact with everyday in our practices – must understand the fact that protecting MICRA goes hand-in-hand with protecting access to quality health care in California. The CMA-led collation working to protect MICRA has published a patient education brochure to help inform California voters about the trial lawyers' deceptive ballot initiative. To learn what you can do to help, visit www.cmanet.org/micra. Comments are closed.
