AMA MEDICAL LIABILITY REFORM

APRIL 30, 2002
DON'T LET IT HAPPEN HERE!

     Across the country, physicians who treat high-risk patients are finding themselves being driven out of practice by runaway medical liability insurance costs. These include emergency trauma physicians, neurosurgeons and obstetricians/gynecologists.

     These physicians pay premiums that exceed $100,000 per year at a time when HMOs are paying lower and lower fees that physicians have no choice but to accept.

     Our legal system works more like a lottery or game-show than one that assures reasonable and realistic compensation for the consequences of errors in medical care.

     Today, patients in many states have difficulty securing critical medical services when they need them most because physicians can no longer afford to provide these essential services.

   Don't allow yourself or a loved-one to end up paying the price because of a broken legal system. We urge all citizens to support the immediate repair of this system to assure that each and every person who suffers from any medical malpractice receives fair and reasonable compensation commensurate with their injury.
     Unless the Governor and Legislature take immediate remedial action to change New York's liability laws, one day New Yorkers could be deprived of critical medical care when they need it most.