Activists want Reid to join medical malpractice fight

Wednesday, May 7, 2003 | 8:53 a.m.

A group of activists rallying in Las Vegas Tuesday goaded Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., to get behind a tort reform effort in Congress aimed at solving the nation's medical malpractice crisis.

The activists say legislation supported by Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., that would cap medical malpractice awards and adopt tort reform similar to a system used in California is the best way to ultimately lower the skyrocketing insurance premiums doctors pay. The legislation would go even further than a Nevada law approved last year that caps non-economic awards at $350,000 in most malpractice cases.

High insurance rates are blamed for driving doctors away from certain areas, including Southern Nevada.

"This is a federal crisis, not just a Nevada crisis," Dr. Rudy Manthei, president of Keep Our Doctors in Nevada, said in a prepared statement. "We'd all love to see reform come on a federal level, and Sen. Reid has the ability to do something about that."

Joining Manthei was Bonnie Seubert, whose doctor left the state after 13 years due to high insurance, and Mary Rasar, who said her father died after an auto accident last summer because University Medical Center had closed its trauma center for 10 days. Doctors resigning over high insurance rates prompted the nationally publicized shutdown.

Reid backs alternative legislation that would reform insurance companies. Reid has repeatedly argued that insurance companies are not subject to the antitrust laws that regulate most industries and ultimately protect consumers.

The differing stances of Nevada's senators on the controversial issue has drawn both support and criticism in the state. Supporters of the Ensign approach often cite frivolous lawsuits as a driving force behind higher malpractice insurance rates.

But victims of malpractice, a few of whom have gathered with Reid at other events, oppose Ensign and argue that they are entitled to more than a proposed $250,000 cap on non-economic "pain and suffering" awards.