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Note: Please do NOT mail this letter to your patients. Use it in your waiting rooms.
All across Texas, the health care liability insurance crisis is threatening patient’s access to their doctors and hospitals. Your access to medical care is now at risk. Skyrocketing medical liability insurance premiums are forcing many physicians to leave Texas, quit medicine early, or cut back on their medical practices. As a result, 152 counties in Texas now have no obstetrician. Wide swaths of Texas have no neurosurgeon or orthopedic surgeon. In just two years, the number of medical liability insurance companies in Texas has dropped from 17 to only 3 today. Without insurance, doctors cannot maintain a hospital practice.
The primary culprit for this crisis is an explosion in awards for noneconomic (pain and suffering) damages in liability lawsuits. In response to this crisis, the Texas Legislature has just passed landmark reforms that provide fair and reasonable caps on noneconomic damages but also ensure unlimited compensation for any and all medical expenses and lost wages.
I strongly believe injured patients should be justly and fairly compensated. These legislative reforms fully achieve this goal. Importantly, the reforms will keep doctors in Texas and secure access to medical care when you need it most.
I am now asking for your help. On Saturday, Sept. 13, 2003, you will have the opportunity to approve an amendment to the Texas Constitution securing these reforms. This amendment will ensure that doctors and hospitals can continue to do what we do best – take care of our patients. I ask you to please vote "YES!” on Proposition 12. Encourage your family, friends, and co-workers to vote "YES!” on 12. Please help preserve access to health care for you, for your loved ones, for all Texans.
VOTE "YES!” ON 12
SATURDAY, SEPT. 13, 2003
Download Microsoft Word version of this letter
Download Spanish version of letter in Microsoft word
Thanks to John L. Durand, MD, of Fort Worth, for the original draft of this letter.
Last Published: 4/8/2005 Print this page
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