national liability reforms based on the Texas and California models. This is a highly partisan issue. Over the years, a number of bills have passed the Republican-controlled House of Representatives only to die in the Senate, where personal injury trial lawyers have heavy influence.
TMA supports the enactment of fair, federal medical liability reforms because we know the very positive effect of the 2003 Texas reforms: better access to care because of the growing number of physicians relocating to Texas.
On the other hand, TMA and other state medical societies also have been extremely diligent in ensuring that any national legislation under consideration — including pushes for federal tort reform — doesn’t reverse or supersede stronger laws already on the books in state capitals around the country. Physicians also remain vigilant about laws that would, intentionally or not, introduce new legal reasons — known as “causes of action” — for people to sue physicians.
A PHYSICIAN’S STORY
Stanley Wang, MD Austin
Texas Liability Reforms Saved Mr. Farmer’s Life
When Austinite C.O. Farmer awoke to severe chest and neck pain, his family doctor acted quickly. This was just one month after medical liability reform drew cardiologist Dr. Stan Wang to Texas. He was able to see Mr. Farmer that day, and he found a 99-percent blockage in a major heart artery.
Dr. Wang insisted Mr. Farmer go to the hospital for a heart procedure. He did, and cardiologists inserted two stents to open his blocked artery.
Mr. Farmer: “Had it not been for the fact that I could see Dr. Wang immediately … the event would have been catastrophic.”
Both of those issues came to play during the 2009 congressional debate over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Several members of the Texas delegation in Washington took steps to make certain that the PPACA would neither overstep Texas’ liability reforms nor create new causes of action against physicians.
ENDNOTES
82 Ramsey, Ross. Fight Over Lawsuits Now Shapes State Politics. The New York Times. March 2012.
83 Texas Medical Association. Proposition 12 Produces Healthy Benefits. February 2012. Available from
http://www.texmed.org/tortreform/. Accessed April 2012.
84 ibid. 85 ibid.
62 TEXAS MEDICINE December 2012
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