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Special points of interest:
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McCain Calls for Medical Liability Reform
 In a rousing speech on healthcare in Iowa earlier this month, Republican Presidential hopeful John McCain joined the growing number of candidates calling for reform of our broken medical liability system. “We cannot let the search for high-quality care be derailed by frivolous lawsuits and excessive damage awards,” McCain said. “We must pass liability reform.” The candidate known for his “straight talk” laid down a direct challenge to the opposing party, saying that if they “are sincere in their conviction that health care coverage and quality is their first priority, then they will put the needs of patients before the demands of trial lawyers. But they can´t have it both ways.” You can read Senator McCain´s full speech here.
The Continuing Patient Access to Care
Crisis I
A new eye-popping survey of U.S. physicians highlights the growing crisis in patient access to quality medical care. Conducted by the national physician search and consulting firm Merritt Hawkins & Associates, the survey found that nearly half of all physicians aged 50 to 65 plan to sharply cut back or abandon patient care within the next three years. In addition, more than half of the physicians surveyed feel that their profession is less satisfying. Not surprisingly, liability concerns, along with reimbursements, were the top sources of professional frustration.
 As some 36% of all doctors in the U.S. are in that age group, such a wholesale exodus would cause severe and growing shortages of medical care for patients. The survey notes that if only 20% of those doctors actually do opt out, nearly 60,000 doctors will be removed from the clinical workforce. The Council on Graduate Medical Education (COGME), a health care panel reporting to Congress on physician supply issues, already estimates a shortage of some 96,000 doctors by 2020. Other sources project the shortage will reach as high as 200,000 physicians by that year.
Even worse, it seems that physicians are increasingly dissatisfied with their profession. Some fifty-two percent of respondents said that they find medicine has become less satisfying over the past five years. Forty-four percent said they would not become doctors if they had it to do all over again, and even more startling, 57 percent said they would not recommend their children or other young people chose medicine as a career.
The Continuing Patient Access to Care Crisis II
 As Protect Patients Now reported to you earlier, the Kentucky Institute of Medicine released its Physician Workforce Study which indicates that the doctor shortage has already hit that state hard. With a low and declining doctor to patient ratio, the state would need some 2,300 additional physicians just to meet the national doctor to patient average.
Citing the state´s “litigious atmosphere” as a prime culprit, the authors call for the state to “improve the medical liability environment.” In a press release, the Kentucky Medical Association called on state lawmakers to heed the study´s recommendations. The KMA, along with more than 70% of the residents of Kentucky, support comprehensive medical liability reform. They want to “reform the state´s broken medical liability system, which encourages frivolous lawsuits and forces physicians to stop practicing.”
Meanwhile, Back At the Ranch….
 As Protect Patients Now has been touting the success of medical liability reform in Texas for the last two years, we´re glad to note that the eagle-eyed reporters at the New York Times have finally spotted the dramatic turn-around of the once lawsuit-weary state. In an article earlier this month, the “paper of record” notes that four years after reform “doctors are responding as supporters predicted, arriving from all parts of the country to swell the ranks of specialists at Texas hospitals and bring professional health care to some long-underserved rural areas.” Much of the rest of the article is given over to carping by plaintiff´s attorneys who have lost a lucrative line of work, but perhaps some politicians in New York State – which is experiencing its own doctor shortages – will heed the Times article and seek to protect patients by replicating Texas´s success in the long-suffering Empire State.
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