Tort Reform

A special session of the General Assembly will begin today with the House of Delegates and Senate debating their versions of medical malpractice reform plans, despite a warning from Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. yesterday that major deviations from the legislation he released last week are unacceptable. A disagreement on key malpractice reform components among Ehrlich, House Speaker Michael E. Busch and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller is expected to make the first special legislative session in a dozen years a tumultuous affair.

Placed strategically between the soothing Mediterranean scenes in the waiting room of Foris Surgical Group in Frederick are life preservers bearing a discordant message: "Save Our Doctors." Inside each preserver ring is a notice that the practice will close Jan. 1 "due to the overwhelming burden of skyrocketing liability insurance costs." The Maryland doctors are hardly alone in pursuing such tactics to counter rising premiums for malpractice coverage. While many doctors avoid such terms as "job action," physicians around the country are increasingly taking a page out of manuals written by labor organizers and other protest movements.

Democratic House Speaker Michael E. Busch removed a top ally of Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. from a committee that will consider medical malpractice reform legislation, a change made yesterday, days before a special session to address the issue. Del. Anthony J. O'Donnell, the House minority whip from Southern Maryland, reacted angrily to his reassignment from the Judiciary Committee, where he served for 10 years, to the Appropriations Committee. "I think the speaker is moving me off there so I can't be a strong voice on medical malpractice," O'Donnell said.

With legislators scrambling to change their holiday plans to be in Annapolis on Dec. 28 for the General Assembly's first special session in more than a decade, continued disagreement over plans to limit medical malpractice insurance increases could sink any hope for a solution before doctors must pay their higher premiums. It's uncertain how many legislators will skip the session because of holiday plans, and the remaining partisan divides, coupled with the need for supermajorities to pass legislation, could make the $45,000-a-day special session a flop, legislative leaders said yesterday.

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. proposed yesterday staving off the 33 percent malpractice insurance rate increase most doctors face on Jan. 1 by using surplus money from a fund that guarantees insurance coverage for Marylanders too sick to buy policies from commercial carriers, House Speaker Michael E. Busch said. Ehrlich confirmed that, during a meeting with Busch and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, he proposed a new idea to pay for a fund that would hold down malpractice insurance rates.

Amid new proposals from lawmakers and doctors, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. said yesterday that he is more optimistic than ever that the General Assembly will adopt medical malpractice reforms in a special legislative session this month. Ehrlich said at a meeting of the state Board of Public Works that he and legislative leaders had resolved all but two of three dozen points of contention in attempting to avoid a 33 percent average increase in malpractice insurance premiums set to hit most Maryland doctors in January.

A task force appointed by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. to examine changes to the state's medical malpractice system released its final recommendations late yesterday, focusing largely on tort reform and other solutions previously proposed by the governor. The committee suggested lower caps on "pain and suffering" awards received by victims, as well as changes to the way patients' medical costs and lost earnings are calculated and paid out. It also recommends limits on attorney's fees based on a sliding scale in use in several other states.

IN ANNAPOLIS, the outlook for medical malpractice reform isn't good. It isn't a lost cause yet. Let's just say it's partially obstructed. On one side we have a governor who sees the issue as a matter of tort reform. He'll support a taxpayer-financed fund to help keep down insurance premiums but he won't back a new source of revenue to pay for it. On the other is state Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, who doesn't like tort reform but can support the fund -- if there's a new tax. And then there's House Speaker Michael E. Busch, who likes the tax-financed fund, too, but wants it linked to genuine reform -- not just changes in legal procedures but insurance and patient safety reforms, too. Kudos to Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. for launching himself into the fray of late.

Md. must enact tort reform now to avert disaster We are writing concerning medical malpractice and the urgent need for tort reform ("Marylanders split over health care cost issues," Oct. 31). Doctors and other providers, especially those in high-risk fields, are being forced out of practice, and patients are being put at risk. And the current arrangements do not serve patients, providers or human health. They are expensive, cumbersome and random, and threaten to irreparably damage Maryland's health care system.

IT MIGHT BE AMUSING to hear congressional Republicans out on the campaign trail in a final push before the November elections boast about their accomplishments this year. There have hardly been any. Most major legislation they tackled - the energy bill, the highway bill, welfare reform, tort reform - is dead in the water because it couldn't attract enough votes to pass. An overhaul of the intelligence agencies prompted by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks requires a speedy House-Senate compromise if it is to be enacted, as GOP leaders hope, this month.