BY BENJAMIN T. HU, MD
While it may not seem like there is a healthcare crisis to those who live in metropolitan Seattle, there is a very real healthcare access crisis going on just about everywhere else around the state. I am the only urology specialist in Island County, serving a population of around 50,000. I have not been able to recruit a second urologist despite several years of trying. As Medicare payment rates continue to fall and malpractice premiums continue to rise, specialists practicing in rural areas can no longer afford to keep their doors open.
My malpractice premiums went up from $12,085 in 2003 to $24,556 in 2005. I had to borrow money to float my practice in March because we had no cash reserves left. I have invested 14 years of my life to building a practice on Whidbey Island, only to see it taken away by ignorant federal bureaucrats, stingy insurance bean counters and greedy lawyers. My patients are begging me not to leave, but without relief in the form of real legal reforms to stop the hemorrhage of healthcare dollars into predatory litigation, and real reforms to equalize Medicare payments geographically around the country, I am literally being shoved off a precipice.
Residents of this county will have to travel up to four hours round trip to see a urology specialist, and that’s an awfully long ride in the back of an ambulance with a kidney stone attack. For me, there’s no end to the recruiting offers I get from out of state with lower malpractice costs, higher Medicare reimbursements, better pay and less call coverage. Only my love for this community and desire not to have to uproot my family has kept me here against the prevailing odds.
Wake up people! Is it really more important to assure the potential for rare but huge jackpot malpractice settlements to a handful of lawyers in this state than it is to assure basic healthcare access to all the residents of this state in a timely and local manner?
Can you really believe the lies that the trial lawyers are feeding the media that 330 will somehow make malpractice lawsuits illegal? I-330 means more healthcare for more people. I-330 means more healthcare dollars going to pay for healthcare and compensating those who have suffered injuries. I-330 means quicker payments to injured people and larger percentages of the settlements will go to the injured people and their families, not the lawyers.
The only people who won’t see more money is the handful of lawyers who have created and profited from this crisis. A single law firm in North Puget Sound donated over $470,000 to the No on 330 campaign. That $470,000 could have paid for a lot of healthcare for the residents of Washington and Puget Sound. Don’t let it pay to make you believe in lies and half truths.
While it has been rarely discussed, it is just as important to defeat the lawyers’ retaliatory initiative I-336, which will drive doctors from this state by creating one of the most oppressive and expensive environments in the country for healthcare professionals. The creation of a state run mandatory patient injury compensation fund will create a second pool for greedy lawyers to double dip from, while effectively doubling what doctors would have to pay to practice in this state for malpractice coverage.
We have already seen in Florida that the so called three strikes initiative encourages the filing of frivolous lawsuits. Settling these out of court amounts to extortion to be paid to avoid entering into the Mega Millions Malpractice Lawsuit Lotto. The average cost of these frivolous lawsuits? $22,000. Who gets paid? You guessed.
This is it. The crisis is here. Now is the time to take definitive action to avert disaster. As the Mayor of New Orleans had said so prophetically, “This is not a drill!†If only we could learn from the mistakes of others. I would urge all citizens of metropolitan Seattle to look beyond the comfy confines of tall buildings filled with lawyers and insurance companies, and do what is right for all the citizens of this state who depend on high quality, timely and locally provided healthcare from the people who have chosen to live in your communities. Support I-330. Put patients first. Say No to the continued diversion of healthcare dollars into predatory litigation and No to I-336.
Benjamin T. Hu, MD
Coupeville
