For months, the Michigan Senate Insurance Committee has been holding hearings on a package of bills that would grant immunity to negligent doctors. On July 18, the Committee will reconvene for one of its summer sessions to consider these anti-patient, pro-insurance measures once more. With tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of deaths and countless injuries every year due to medical malpractice, doctors need to be held accountable for their mistakes rather than be given a free pass.
This bill package is yet another attempt at so-called “tort reform,” which is a fancy name for taking away victims’ rights to jury trials and compensation for their injuries. Insurance companies have spent millions of dollars over the years convincing the public that tort reform saves everyone money, but the reality is that ordinary people will end up bearing the cost of medical errors. In Texas, similar laws were passed back in 2003, and health care costs did not decline as the insurance industry had promised. And here in Michigan, drug industry immunity has resulted in our state and our citizens being unable to share in the compensation for injuries caused by defective drugs.
Granting negligent doctors immunity for malpractice would be a huge and devastating mistake. Please join us at 8:00 a.m. on July 18 at the Senate Hearing Room in Boji Tower, 124 W. Allegan Street in Lansing to let the Committee know that bad medicine is bad for Michigan. If you can’t join us, please email the committee members. ACCOUNTABILITY, NO IMMUNITY.
recently named in the 2009 edition of Best Lawyer's In America, David Mittleman has been representing seriously injured people since 1985. A partner with Church Wyble PC—a division of Grewal Law PLLC—Mr. Mittleman and his partners focus on medical malpractice, wrongful death, car accidents, slip and falls, nursing home injury, pharmacy/pharmacist negligence and disability claims.
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