A host of physicians, clinicians and nurse practitioners gathered in front of the Eureka Community Health & Wellness Center on Wednesday to voice their opposition to the statewide Proposition 46, saying it was created to put more money in attorneys' pockets and will drive medical providers out of the state.
"Proposition 46 is bad medicine for California," Humboldt-Del Norte County Medical Society President John Mastroni said during the press conference. "Proposition 46 is really three measures in one. It was carelessly thrown together by trial attorneys with the hopes that adding a sweetener provision would trick voters. Proposition 46's real purpose is to lift the cap on medical malpractice payouts and make it easier and more lucrative for attorneys to file medical malpractice lawsuits, which will increase the health care costs ..."
Retired local dentist Steve Schonfeld said the increase in malpractice insurance for medical providers as well as the government programs would cause an increase in health care costs. He said local governments and taxpayers would be financially burdened with hundreds of millions of dollars and that the average family of four is estimated to see a $1,000 increase in health care costs per year if the proposition passes.
"For many of our neighbors, $1,000 dollars is the difference between health care and groceries," he said. "It's a choice that doesn't have to be made."
Several of the speakers Wednesday said this would raise medical malpractice insurance rates for medical providers throughout the state to the point where they would leave.
McCaffrey said that would greatly impact the number of doctors in Humboldt County, where 50 percent of providers are estimated to retire within the next 20 years.
"This proposition is just gonna make a very tenuous, barely accessible medical system in Humboldt-Del Norte counties," she said. "It's devastating. If you throw one more thing at us, we're going to Oregon. Because we can't afford to take care of our patients. Right now, you can't even afford to open a single practice clinic." Read more
◼ Trial lawyers aren’t behind Prop. 46 simply because they want to prevent the deaths of other children at the hands of drivers intoxicated with alcohol and prescription meds. - Orange County Register Editorial
They are bankrolling the measure because the want to rewrite the state’s Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act, which was enacted by the Legislature in response to well-founded concerns that high malpractice costs would limit the number of doctors practicing medicine in California.
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