Pioneer Press

Mr. Kotin’s February 11 column heralding the overturn of Illinois’ vital medical lawsuit reform law was riddled with misinformation. Here’s a fact check.

He says AMA data demonstrate a growth of doctors in Illinois during our medical liability crisis. What the AMA statistics reflect is the number of medical licenses, not the number of practicing doctors. Think about this as it relates to a driver’s licenses. Not everyone who possesses a driver’s license owns a car or drives every day. The same is true of a medical license. It is routine for a physician to maintain an active license upon retirement, especially for those who continue to provide volunteer medical care. I also have many licensed colleagues who work in other jobs that do not involve seeing patients. And of course there are many doctors who do not perform certain procedures that are common for their specialty, but deemed too risky for fear of lawsuits. You can count all the medical licenses you want, but this is not an accurate measure for the availability of medical care.

Mr. Kotin also suggests that cost savings associated with medical liability reform are a pittance and do little to rein in health care spending. I don’t know how anyone can characterize $54 billion as a skimpy sum. That is the amount the Congressional Budget Office says we would save with strong national medical lawsuit reforms.

Lastly, he states that “politicians sitting in Springfield” should not have a say over what is happening in the courtrooms. It is interesting he says this because just last year, lawyer groups asked our state lawmakers to allow something called “pre-judgment interest” in lawsuits, severe payouts not currently permissible under Illinois law. Luckily, our General Assembly didn’t buy into this scheme to further inflate jury awards. My point is, it’s disingenuous to say that our General Assembly should ignore the will of the people who pled for medical liability reform, but that it’s OK for lawmakers to re-make the rules when trial lawyers ask a favor.

I know all of the information related to the medical liability crisis can be confusing. I encourage all patients to talk to their physicians about how the medical liability crisis has impacted everyone’s access to care. That’s what this issue is about and why physicians of Illinois will continue to work for sensible medical lawsuit reform. For the real story on medical liability visit www.realitymedicine.com.

Steven M. Malkin, M.D.
President-Elect
Illinois State Medical Society