Lawyers win again, patients lose

Illinois has found another way to victimize physicians:

Kate McDonough, spokesperson for the Illinois College of Emergency Physicians, said the new amended legislation allows a jury in a civil trial to award damages for grief, sorrow and mental suffering. The original legislation prohibited jurors in a civil trial from considering those three factors, she said.

McDonough said the new bill also deleted language limiting the amount of damages that could be awarded.

I can’t really say that doctors really lose here – they can simply move to a malpractice-friendly state like Texas and continue working. The patients however, are left with a lack of physician access, making them the ultimate losers in this scenario.

Update:
Happyman puts it even more bluntly in the comments below. The runaway tort system really hurts patients more, not doctors:

And it’s much more of a problem for PATIENTS than doctors- we will always have a relatively high-paying job, but if you are in a car wreck & need a craniotomy, blame your local trial lawyers for ending up a vegetable, as threatening or suing your local ER for not getting a neurosurgeon in time isn’t gonna save your neurons.

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