Justice or affordable care? Medical malpractice bill leads to intense debate
A battle over whether more people should be able to sue when a family member dies from medical malpractice produced a heated debate in the Legislature on Tuesday.
On one side: Relatives of victims of alleged negligence by health care providers, who say they were denied justice by Florida's law, which bars adult children – those 25 and older – from suing for noneconomic damages if their unmarried parent dies due to medical malpractice. (Noneconomic damages can include things like pain and suffering, and emotional distress.) The parents of an adult child who dies from medical malpractice are also barred from receiving those pain and suffering damages.
'I was told I didn't qualify enough as a mother to seek justice,' said Marcia Scheppler, whose 29 year-old son with Down Syndrome, Jo Jo, was refused emergency care at Tradition Hospital in Port St. Lucie in 2019.
She raced to another hospital but Jo Jo, suffering from an allergic reaction to medication, died in the delay. Florida law 'doesn't just fail people like me it endangers people like Jo Jo,' she told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Health and Human Services.
The panel was hearing a bill (SB 734) that would repeal the exceptions to Florida's wrongful death law that apply to the adult children of an unmarried parent, or the parents of an adult child, who die due to negligence by a medical provider. The exceptions were put into place in 1990.
On the other side: Hospitals, medical malpractice insurance providers and some physicians, who argue the change would hike Florida's already high insurance rates and exacerbate the state's struggle to find enough doctors for its growing, aging population.
Judy Davis, corporate risk manager at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, said their medical malpractice insurance coverage rates have risen by 45% in the last five years, and their $4 million deductible means many cases aren't eligible for coverage. She warned of shortages of obstetricians and physicians in rural areas because of higher rates if more people could sue for malpractice.
'Physicians say they don't want to come to Florida because of concern over rates,' Davis said.
Sen. Clay Yarborough, R-Jacksonville, is sponsoring the bill. He noted that his version of the bill last year included caps on noneconomic damages. This year's version, though, doesn't have caps but he said he's open to changing the bill going forward to thwart any spike in insurance rates. 'Obviously we don't want to increase costs,' Yarborough said. 'But we also need to have accountability.'
The panel voted 8-2 in favor of the bill, with Sens. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, and Colleen Burton, R-Lakeland, voting against it. 'We are desperately in need of physicians,' Harrell said. 'If this bill passes we are going to have an increase in medical malpractice (rates). We are already the highest in the country.'
The bill has one more committee hearing in the Senate before hitting the floor. The House version of the bill (HB 6017) has one more hearing as well before heading to the floor in that chamber.
Gray Rohrer is a reporter with the USA TODAY Network-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at grohrer@gannett.com. Follow him on X: @GrayRohrer.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Florida medical malpractice bill leads to intense debate
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