Survey: Voters want more reforms

Erin Neff

Thursday, Feb. 20, 2003 | 11:23 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A majority of Nevada voters favor additional reforms to the state's medical malpractice laws, according to a survey released today by a doctors' group.

The survey found that voters blamed insurance companies and lawyers for the medical malpractice crisis and had favorable views of doctors.

Republican pollster Frank Luntz did the survey for the group Keep Our Doctors in Nevada, which is lobbying the Legislature to change the law.

Luntz asked 400 registered voters whether they supported a petition signed by 95,000 people designed "to reduce the number of frivolous lawsuits and reduce the cost of medical malpractice insurance so that doctors will remain in the state."

A total of 87 percent supported the petition given that question.

Another 82 percent answered that they thought additional reform was needed, despite efforts taken by the state Legislature in a special session last summer.

Among other findings:

The poll was set to be released in the state Legislative Building this afternoon and was designed to get lawmakers to support a petition seeking additional tort reform.

But some lawmakers criticized the initial results of the survey shown to them by the Sun today based on the language used in the poll.

"This doesn't change my mind," Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas said. "It's not like it's an unbiased poll. I could conduct my poll and get the same results for my perspective."

The poll, with a margin of error of 4.9 percent, found 37 percent of voters blamed the insurance companies for the crisis, 32 percent blamed lawyers and 4 percent blamed doctors.

Just 22 percent believed doctors or the health care industry had exaggerated the crisis.

Doctors say they are being forced from the state because of rising medical malpractice insurance premiums. Insurance companies say the premiums have risen because they can't estimate the costs of medical malpractice lawsuits.

The Legislature imposed a $350,000 cap on non-economic damages in jury awards, with several exceptions. The cap is designed to help insurance companies measure their costs and thus bring down the premiums.

Keep Our Doctors in Nevada has submitted a petition to the Legislature to enact a $250,000 cap with no exceptions, and several other provisions. The Legislature must consider that petition by the 40th day of the session.

If no action is taken, the measure would go on the ballot in 2004.

Both Gov. Kenny Guinn and Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, said they wanted to allow the initial law passed last August to have time to have an effect before additional tort reform.

"I think we accomplished tort reform in the special session," Perkins said. "It will still take time for it to show any change in the rates."

State Sen. Ann O'Connell, R-Las Vegas, has sponsored a bill that would do many of the things the petitioners are seeking.

Sen. Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he would hold a hearing on that bill March 10. He said the reform enacted last year still has room for improvement.

"Everybody in the Legislature planned to revisit the issue to see if some tune-up was needed," Amodei said.

The Legislative Counsel Bureau is preparing a report of how many doctors have left Nevada or closed their practice as part of that hearing.

Perkins said all lawmakers want to keep doctors in the state, but he suggested one avenue the Legislature should examine this session is insurance reform.

Luntz is a respected Republican pollster who appears regularly on nationally televised news shows and has conducted surveys for Nevada gaming companies. He also did a sizable poll for Steve Wynn several years ago to gauge support for a sports arena or performing arts center.

Sun reporter

Cy Ryan contributed to this story.