Medical Liability Reform

MISSION:  The Coalition to Protect Patients’ Rights will pursue state and federal medical liability reforms in an effort to reduce the cost of healthcare, limit the need to practice defensive medicine and encourage qualified physicians to reconsider their decision to quit the profession altogether.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed without including any meaningful medical liability reforms.  As medical professionals, CPPR members have seen firsthand the damage caused by our broken medical liability system.  Failure to include any reforms in the new healthcare law was a glaring omission, especially in light of the October 2009 Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate that reforms such as capping noneconomic damages and tightening the statute of limitations for filing a suit would trim the federal deficit by $54 billion over ten years.  It is not too late to make such necessary changes, however, especially when they have the overwhelming support of the American people. Evidence that medical liability reform has helped decreased health care costs in various states throughout the country also helps build the case that action must be taken.

Doctors must be allowed to go back to being doctors, rather than defendants. The goal is to keep physicians in practice so patients will have access to care in their hour of need.