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Article published Jan 27, 2005
Medical workers converge on Statehouse
ROBERT W. DALTON
Staff Writer
DuBose Medlock Jr.
brought his surgical practice to Spartanburg because of the high cost of
malpractice insurance.A general surgeon, Medlock came from Laurens, where a
large number of his patients were Medicaid patients."You pay the same for
malpractice insurance regardless of where you practice, and I just wasn't making
enough to pay all the expenses," Medlock said. "My malpractice insurance premium
goes up about 50 percent every year."Medlock and about 200 white-coated
healthcare professionals joined Gov. Mark Sanford for a rally Wednesday at the
Statehouse to call for medical malpractice reform.Robert Rainer, a Spartanburg
pathologist, said the chief concern is putting a $250,000 cap on non-economic
damages -- awards for items such as pain and suffering -- for someone who has
been injured by a physician. Economic damages, for things such as lost wages and
medical bills, would not be impacted."What we're after is a system that will be
fair to people and allow them to get compensated for economic damages, but will
limit non-economic damages," Rainer said. "Right now, the sky is the limit on
non-economic damages."Rainer said that capping non-economic damages, as Texas
and California have done, would put the brakes on spiraling insurance premiums.
He said that for some specialties -- surgery, neurosurgery and obstetrics -- the
costs are so high that they are driving doctors out of the state.Rainer said
that his premium is about $12,000 a year, but that it wasabout $3,000 five years
ago.Medlock said that he recently changed to a private company and his most
recent premium was $25,000. He said he paid about $5,000 five years ago.John
Evans, a physician and president of the S.C. Medical Association, said those
types of increases are why the time for reform has come."We know it, the people
know it and the politicians know it," Evans said."Now it's time for them to give
us what we need."Sanford, who is pushing tort reform as one of his top agenda
items, said that it's crucial to have reform this year."This is a subject that
impacts our ability to be competitive around the globe," Sanford said. "For
small businesses, for job creation, for capital investment and for healthcare in
South Carolina it's vitally important."A bill sponsored by Sen. Jim Ritchie,
R-Spartanburg, that would set a $250,000 cap that would be multiplied by the
number of classes of defendants cleared a Senate Judiciary subcommittee
Wednesday and could move to the floor on Tuesday.Under Ritchie's proposal, if
two doctors were sued, the cap would be $250,000. If a suit involved a doctor
and a hospital, the cap would be $500,000."This provides access to healthcare by
bringing stability to the system," said Ritchie, a Spartanburg attorney. "It
also protects plaintiffs by making more compensation available."State Rep. Todd
Rutherford, D-Columbia, said the legal system -- at least in South Carolina --
isn't in need of a fix."Every time I've asked a proponent of caps to cite a
single case where a verdict is out of control, they can't do it," said
Rutherford, who is also an attorney. "Someone is injured for life and you want
cap the amount of money they can receive when verdicts in South Carolina are
under control?"Rutherford said instead of trying to make changes in the legal
system, the medical community should focus on regulating insurance companies."If
there's a problem, address the problem," Rutherford said. "Medical malpractice
in South Carolina is one area where we don't need reform."Robert W. Dalton can
be reached at 562-7274 or bob.dalton@shj.com.