It’s Time to Cap Medical Malpractice Damages and Protect Florida’s Healthcare Future

In the past legislative session, a bill was filed to cap medical malpractice damages, specifically those damages that were related to pain and suffering. Unfortunately, that legislation failed, but in my opinion, it is time for someone to file that legislation again.

As a retired small businesswoman, I can tell you that the ability for businesses to recruit and maintain a stable workforce has a lot more to do with the availability of healthcare services than not. Every family is different. Many are dealing with special needs children or aging parents.

Healthcare availability is critical to their contentment, and if they feel that they are in a place where they cannot get access to the healthcare that they need for themselves or their loved ones, they are likely to eject and look for other locations for work.

Caps on litigation awards for the very subjective concepts of pain and suffering are very practical. Real damages are predictable and capable of being tied to a financial solution associated with loss of movement or physical health. Pain and suffering are completely subjective. For instance, for even a tiny mistake by a dermatologist, while the actual economic damage may be minimal to a patient, the pain and suffering damages claimed by a plaintiff may be completely out of line with reality. Big, unpredictable costs associated with litigation cause insurance and the cost of healthcare to skyrocket. Furthermore, litigation riskiness can cause healthcare providers to seek a less adversarial place of work other than the state of Florida.

Combined, these two factors can cause a healthcare system to be shaky at best.

It is time to restore some sanity to our medical community so that physician recruitment and retention can increase, and there is no shortage to the availability of healthcare services. That in turn lends itself to more availability. Caps on awards for pain and suffering will ease pressure on the cost of doing business and the cost of insurance that gets passed along to consumers.

This is a no-brainer and an obvious next step to making Florida healthier and more attractive to the workers and specialists that we need to keep our economy on fire.

Regina Brown is a retired businesswoman and President of Transforming Florida. She lives in Ocala, Florida.