Texas Tort Reform Is Failing

Last year, Texas voters were promised an end to our state’s health care crisis if they voted for a controversial amendment to the Texas constitution. The amendment, known as Proposition 12, stripped key constitutional rights away from Texas families.

In exchange for giving up their rights, Texans were promised that Prop 12 would lead to improvements in the cost, access, and quality of healthcare, as well as significant reductions in medical malpractice premiums for doctors.

By the measures that really matter -- whether promises made to Texas families were kept -- the one-year report card shows that Proposition 12 has thus far been a failure.

Healthcare Costs. There has been no measurable improvement in the cost of healthcare for Texas patients. Nursing home residents face increases in the cost of care and health insurance premiums are still rising.

Access to Healthcare. Underserved areas of the state have actually seen a decrease in the number of doctors serving their communities, and 42% of non-elderly Texans are still without health insurance. Moreover 60% of Texas counties still do not have an OB/GYN.

Malpractice Premiums. Insurance companies tried to raise rates as much as 35% after Prop 12, and doctors have seen less than a 4% average reduction this year. Only one company has actually lowered its rates.

Unfortunately, Proposition 12 has been a lesson in broken promises. Rates are higher, healthcare costs remain too high, underserved areas are still underserved, and doctors have not seen any meaningful relief.

Following Prop 12’s passage, insurance companies and hospitals posted millions in profits, but the measure of true tort reform is not whether corporate hospitals and HMOs are making more money. It is whether the promises that were made to Texas families and patients are being kept. Clearly, that has not happened.

The most disturbing result of Prop 12 is the inability for many Texans to hold wrongdoers accountable for their actions. Decisions that should be made by judges and juries have been prejudged by politicians and special interests. This is a blatant attempt by special interests representing bad doctors, careless hospitals, and manufacturers of dangerously defective products to avoid accountability.

It appears that the only beneficiaries of these so-called tort “reforms” have been the special interests that bankrolled the campaign to pass Prop 12.

Real tort reform would protect everyday Texans, not the big insurance companies.

It will be years before we know the full impact of Prop 12, but the one-year report card is not promising for Texas families.

Courtesy of Texas Watch  -- www.texaswatch.org