Amazingly, Tennessee tort reformers are looking to Mississippi as a model for tort reform. Note what Greg Duckett, senior vice president and corporate counsel for Baptist Memorial Health Care Corp., said about the post-tort reform situation in Mississippi. Malpractice costs are growing less rapidly, but it's still difficult to recruit physicians to Mississippi and will remain so until it's clear that the reforms actually work.
That malpractice costs are growing less rapidly in Mississippi is hardly a selling point. Doesn't anyone remember that insurance companies assured doctors that their medical malpractice insurance rates would drop?
Duckett recognizes that the reforms may not work. He need not wait to see if they do. Dr. Keith Goodfellow, of Bay St. Louis, said that skyrocketing malpractice rates are forcing him to give up part of the practice he loves. His decision was made after tort reform was effected in Mississippi. I can't think he is the only Mississippi doctor to find that tort reformers' promises now have a hollow ring.
Tort reformers in Mississippi have been congratulating themselves because the American Tort Reform Association removed five Mississippi counties from its "judicial hellhole" list. That is good news for tort reformers, but not for victims of medical malpractice. When Mississippi placed a cap on pain and suffering awards, it joined other states that have done so on the "medical malpractice victims hellhole" list.
It is a tragedy that medical malpractice victims in states where tort reform has been effected have been victimized twice, first by being injured by a doctor and then by being denied a basic constitutional right: that a jury decides what recompense for their injury is appropriate.
Tennessee is not on the "judicial hellhole" list. Legislators should not place the state on the "medical malpractice victims hellhole" list.
Jane Marshall
120 Malibu Drive B20
Clarksville, Tennessee 37043