Measure to Drug-Test Physicians, Increase Medical Malpractice Compensation Falls Short in California

Posted By Mitchell Law Firm | Posted on: Apr 17, 2015

Posted In: Blog, Medical Malpractice

On November 4, 2014, a California election measure to perform arbitrary drug-testing of physicians and increase the cap on pain and suffering compensation in medical malpractice claims was unsuccessful in passing. Proposition 45 originated from a misfortune confronted by its creator, Bob Pack, whose young children were murdered almost eleven years before by a driver intoxicated by drugs prescribed by numerous doctors. When Pack embarked to take legal action against those physicians for pain and suffering, he fought to locate an attorney due to California’s cap on such compensation. At $250,000, California’s cap on pain-and-suffering compensation was the lowest in the nation. Proposition 46 tried to increase it to $1.1 million.

Measure opponents especially claimed that modification would be expensive. As attorneys enticed by more elevated prospective costs brought more claims and physicians did more defensive medicine, they stated, healthcare expenditure would increase. As stated by the Los Angeles Times, the opponents maintained that Proposition 46 would wind up costing a four-member family over $1,000 yearly. Advocates stated that it would really save money by reducing the number of expensive medical mistakes.

In addition, the physician drug-testing stipulation demonstrated to be notorious. According to Proposition 46, doctors could have been randomly examined for drugs, within a day of a difficult occasion experienced by a patient under their care, and when they were charged with probable substance abuse. The East Bay Express wrote had it been ratified, California would have been the sole state demanding arbitrary drug tests of physicians.