President plans to speak with Henderson couple

Benjamin Grove

Thursday, July 25, 2002 | 9:36 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush today planned to chat with Henderson couple Chet and Jill Barnes about capping malpractice lawsuits. Bush is calling for reforms that would rein in lawsuits against doctors and ultimately offer patients access to more doctors and affordable health care.

Student teacher Jill Barnes, 27, is seven weeks pregnant and has not been able to find a doctor who is taking new patients, a problem rooted in a medical malpractice insurance crisis gripping Southern Nevada. The couple will have their first appointment next month with a doctor in Bullhead City, Ariz., a 90-minute drive.

"It's made what is supposed to be one of the most exciting times of our lives one of the most stressful," Jill Barnes said.

Bush is scheduled to meet for a roundtable discussion with the Barnes couple, and about a dozen others invited to tell their stories, during a trip to a hospital and university in High Point, N.C.

The White House included the Nevada couple in the discussion because administration officials have taken note of a number of states, including Nevada, that are struggling to retain doctors because of soaring malpractice insurance rates. The White House contacted the Barnes couple through a Henderson doctor who was familiar with their plight.

The issue has reached crisis proportions in Las Vegas; Nevada's only level one trauma center closed from July 3 to July 13 when orthopedic surgeons at University Medical Center resigned amid the controversy over high medical malpractice insurance rates.

Jill Barnes said the UMC trauma closing overshadowed another real problem -- a lack of obstetricians. She and her husband contacted about 15 Southern Nevada doctors, and all of them turned the couple away, she said.

"I'm not sure what to suggest (to Bush) but with all these problems, it's just scary what is happening to health care in Southern Nevada," she said.

Lawmakers in Congress are mulling a bill that would limit malpractice awards for pain and suffering to $250,000, and Bush generally supports the legislation. Punitive damages would be limited to the same amount, or twice the patient's financial loss, according to the bill.