21st Century Health Justice: Examples of why a better system of health justice must prevail

Perhaps nowhere else in American life is this broken litigation system most threatening to the lives of Americans than in the healthcare system. Greed has replaced equity; enrichment has replaced justice, and what was once a nuisance has grown into a genuine threat to the nation’s health as the following examples illustrate:

• In late 2002 the only trauma center in Las Vegas closed because of the preposterous cost of litigation insurance. The risk of dying from trauma went up exponentially for residents and visitors alike. Lawyer enrichment has put human life at risk.
• Also in Las Vegas, the price of litigation insurance and the threat of predatory lawsuits have led obstetricians to refuse to take new patients.
• In West Virginia surgeons are being threatened with massive increases in litigation insurance and patients have to wait longer and longer or travel further and further to undergo needed surgery. The lawyers are getting richer, but the health of West Virginians’ is being put at risk in the process.
• The difference between Pennsylvania and New Jersey litigation costs are now so great that doctors are moving from Philadelphia to Camden, New Jersey across the river where their patients now have to go for care. Unfortunately New Jersey isn’t the haven we would hope; twenty-two thousand New Jersey doctors walked out of their offices for two weeks to call attention to their own unsustainable increases in litigation insurance premiums.
• The cost of litigation insurance in long-term care facilities, $30 per day per bed in some states, is leading an increasing number to close their doors. A long-term care facility in south Philadelphia is being closed due to rising litigation insurance costs. This closure is forcing over 400 patients to move as far as the coalfields of northeastern Pennsylvania, 150 miles away. Some families do not have a car and will not be able to visit their loved ones. The unscrupulousness of trial lawyers is affecting the economy, crippling families, and risking lives.
• The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology has issued their “red alert” status in 9 states with 7 more states on the watch list. The current system of litigation is jeopardizing women and their unborn babies by incentivizing health care professionals to quit practicing in states with high malpractice insurance. The American Medical Association reports that 12 states -- including Texas, New York, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Oregon, and New Jersey -- are in serious danger of doctor shortages because of rapidly rising malpractice insurance premiums. While trial lawyers are reaping enormous benefits, doctors are being forced to abandon patients in desperate need of care.