Governor Ron DeSantis did the right thing vetoing legislation that could have negatively impacted me and all of my peers and colleagues in the medical profession. The legislation to which I refer would have massively expanded lawsuits for pain and suffering associated with injuries or death from medical malpractice.
In Florida, adult children 25 years old and older cannot pursue non-economic damages for a parent’s death if that death were caused by medical negligence. This may sound like a harsh law, but it is not a good idea to expand the avenue for non-economic medical malpractice claims. Some in the legislature have attempted to change this law and permit adult children of deceased parents to pursue non-economic damages. The reality is that most adult children would have a difficult time showing that there are any true economic damages resulting from a parent’s death, but it would be relatively easy to prove emotional pain and damage because we all endure this when a parent dies, regardless of how they die.
However, there are good reasons to keep the law as it is now. Opening up malpractice suits to pain and suffering claims will cause lawyers and plaintiffs to start playing the numbers game, filing as many suits as possible to see what they can make stick. The increase in the number would destroy predictability for insurance models and also lead insurance companies to take the settlement path far too easily. This will cause insurance rates for doctors, nurses, and hospitals to explode. All of these costs would be passed right along to consumers at a time when they can least afford it.
The stress associated with a significant rise in litigious activity would also contribute to many health care professionals’ departure from practicing in Florida. This would mean that wait times will grow longer and quality of care will suffer significantly, particularly in rural areas.
When the legislation was being debated in the various committees, several representatives and senators made the point that if they were to support legislation to open up the opportunity for adult children to sue for non-economic damages, they would also like to see caps attached to keep the costs from growing out of control or to prevent nuclear verdicts that can literally put an entire entity out of business. However, the same people pushing to expand the ability for adult children to pursue non-economic damages also opposed adding any caps. This says a lot about motive.
The governor was right to look out for doctors, nurses, and patients, and we should always remember that for true medical negligence, a penalty for the guilty party is probably a better method of punishment than an economic windfall for the victim’s family, paid for by the rest of us who did nothing wrong.
