Americans favor Caps on Pain and Suffering

In a study released by the Harvard School of Public Health and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, which is a nonprofit organization that studies health care issues, Americans overwhelmingly favor reforming our medical liability system.

In a press conference held yesterday, the School and Foundation released some interesting facts about their survey of American views of the current tort system and efforts to change it, including:
- Seventy-two percent support legislation requiring an independent specialist review of a case before a lawsuit could be filed
-63 percent favored caps on damages for pain and suffering

Meanwhile, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch is reporting a "steep increase" in trauma in Illinois trauma patients at St. Louis University (SLU) Hospital, which is considered the first hospital over the river from Metro-East Illinois.

The number of Illinois patients DOUBLED over the past two years, up to 946 last year from 471 in 2002, and now accounts for 34 percent of the hospital's overall trauma caseload.

More from the article:

Barnes-Jewish Hospital, meanwhile, reported 316 trauma admissions from Illinois last year, up 34 percent from 2003. In 2001, the hospital admitted only 50 trauma patients from Illinois, Jennifer Arvin, a hospital spokeswoman, said Monday.

Arvin said Barnes continued to see an increase in inpatient neurosurgery cases from Illinois last year - 687 of them, 33 percent more than in 2003.

BJC is now seeing more than SIX TIMES more trauma patients since 2001? Incredible, but true. That's more than 1200 Illinois patients who lost critical time in an emergency being driven or airlifted to St. Louis because an abusive legal system has driven neuro doctors from the Metro-East.