BY ALAN PITTMAN
Malpractice
Doctors want Measure 35 to scalpel lawyers,
but patients bleed.
A
“Voter’s Guide for the State of
Oregon” appeared in millions of
mailboxes this week.
The “guide” looks official. It’s stark
printing, font and formatting closely resem-
bles the state’s official Voters’ Pamphlet.
But it’s not. It’s from the coalition of
doctors, hospitals and insurance companies
spending millions of dollars to push
Measure 35 — a constitutional amendment
to allow negligent or reckless doctors and
hospitals to inflict pain and suffering and
not have to pay more than $500,000 in non-
economic damages.
tive and lax. Five percent of the doctors in
the U.S. are responsible for 54 percent of
malpractice payouts, Public Citizen found.
But state medical boards have disciplined
only 8 percent of these few, worst doctors.
One doctor paid more than $10 million for
injuring 13 different people in Nevada and
California in 10 years but was never disci-
plined.
The dangerous doctor’s name is kept se-
cret in a National Practitioner Data Bank. In
Oregon, the state will provide information
on how many people have complained
about a car dealer you’re thinking of buying
The medical profession could keep the malpractice
claims away by tossing out a few bad apples,
but enforcement is secretive and lax.
Unlike the official state Voters’
Pamphlet, the look-alike contained only ar-
guments in support of Measure 35 and the
claim that personal injury attorneys were
“the only opposition” to the initiative.
But Measure 35 isn’t just about doctors
and lawyers clawing at each other for cash.
It’s health care consumers that are under the
knife and have the most at stake. The
biggest health care consumer groups are op-
posed to Measure 35.
The American Association of Retired
Persons, with half a million Oregon mem-
bers, and the Grey Panthers are among the
many senior citizen groups opposed to
Measure 35. The AFL-CIO and other
unions for firefighters, teachers and govern-
ment workers say the measure will also hurt
their hundreds of thousands of members.
Oregon’s major newspapers, including The
Oregonian and The Register-Guard, have
also editorialized against the measure as
bad for health care consumers. The state
and nation’s largest public interest health
advocacy groups oppose Measure 35, in-
cluding Common Cause, the Oregon State
Public Interest Research Group (OSPIRG)
and Public Citizen.
Public Citizen, a 150,000 member con-
sumer advocacy non-profit, has researched
the issue of capping doctor liability exten-
sively. There are too few malpractice law-
suits, not too many, according to the con-
sumer group’s reports. Preventable medical
errors kill between 44,000 and 98,000
Americans a year, costing society from $17
billion to $29 billion annually, according to
a Institute of Medicine Study. In Oregon,
that amounts to an estimated cost to society
of $207 million to $353 million for the 535
to 1,191 people killed each year by prevent-
able medical errors.
Although hundreds die and countless oth-
ers are maimed or in pain, doctors face few
serious repercussions. In Oregon, only 44
doctors had their medical licenses revoked,
suspended or restricted in 2002. Studies by
Harvard University, Utah, Colorado and
Florida researchers have found that only one
in six to one in eight medical errors results in
a malpractice claim.
The medical profession could keep the
malpractice claims away by tossing out a
few bad apples, but enforcement is secre-
a used ride from, but not about a doctor
you’re thinking about paying to cut you
open and handle your vital organs.
By law, the 11-member Oregon Board of
Medical Examiners is in charge of handling
complaints against doctors but includes
only two members representing health con-
sumers.
The medical profession is so poorly reg-
ulated that doctors with patients’ lives in
their hands are allowed to work up to 36
hours without sleeping. Mistakes happen.
During 2001 in Florida hospitals, doctors
committed 54 surgeries on wrong parts of
the body, 16 wrong procedures and nine op-
erations performed on wrong patients.
Doctors and hospitals argue that Oregon
needs Measure 35 because high malpractice
insurance premiums are driving away doc-
tors, especially in rural areas.
But a study by Public Citizen and OS-
PIRG of state data found this year that there
are actually more doctors moving to
Oregon. The number of active doctors in
Oregon rose 12 percent in the last four
years, the consumer groups reported.
Increases were even higher in higher risk
specialties like obstetrics and in rural areas,
according to the report.
To help rural areas attract doctors, the
Oregon Legislature last year set up a $40
million program that will cut rural doctors’
malpractice premiums by up to 80 percent.
In any case, doctors don’t decide where
to live based on state liability laws. “Like
anyone else, doctors want to live in places
where they can earn high incomes, enjoy
cultural and leisure activities, and send their
children to good schools,” OSPIRG and
Public Citizen reported.
The two consumer groups also pointed
out that limiting non-economic damages
will hurt the poor and women, children, mi-
norities and seniors the most. These people
can’t show big paychecks to demonstrate
the lost income required by substantial eco-
nomic awards.
On the other hand, doctors do have fat
paychecks—averaging $175,000 a year.
But Public Citizen reported medical mal-
practice insurance costs amount to only 3.2
percent of the average physician’s rev-
enues. That’s not enough to cause much
pain and suffering.
ew
Pro-Education
Pro-Health Care
Pro-Jobs
Pro-Clean Air
Pro-Clean Water
515 HIGH Eugene 541-485-4224
OPEN Mon-Sat 10-6 & Sun 12-5
State Senator Floyd
in'
miss
Y'er nty
Ple don't
if you
Prozanski
P
SHO E!
HER
District 4
Keep him working for us
Paid and authorized by Friends for Floyd Prozanski,
John VanLandingham, Treasurer, PO Box 11511,
Eugene, OR 97440. www.floyd4senate.com
www.greatergoodsonline.com
ALL NEW, CREEPY CREATION!
NEW MAZE LAYOUT!
THREE TIMES LARGER &
MORE TERRIFYING!
31st ANNUAL
Oct. 21-23
& Oct. 28-31
Hours:
Thu. & Sun.
7pm-10pm
Fri. & Sat.
7pm-11pm
Located in Equestrian Building at The Lane County Fairgrounds
Admission $7.50 per person, ages 6 and over. Ages 6-11 must be accompanied by an adult.
For more information call 341-6200 or www.eugene2030.org
Sponsored By: The Eugene Active 20-30 Club, Starbucks, Big Boy Toys,
Jerry’s, KDUK, Dominos Pizza, Pepsi & Bi-Mart
OCTOBER 21, 2004 13