Oregon voters have an opportunity to send a message to the insurance industry as well as the medical lobby when we vote no on measure 35. There is a lot of misinformation out there about capping medical malpractice cases and even exactly what this measure will do. Here is some truth.



Getting to the Truth of Measure 35
by Vanessa Houk

Six years ago my son died at birth. His death certificate lists the cause as stillbirth, but the real cause of Dylan's death was a hospital that was short staffed and unprepared for an emergency on that night in late August. For many months after Dylan's death, I lived in a fog. It took everything I had in me just to wake up every morning and take care of our four year old daughter. I did not have the energy, strength or reserves to ask questions about what happened. Our families tried to inquire, but Jason and I simply needed more time to face up to what happened. When I thought about bringing a lawsuit against the doctor or the hospital, it made me feel sick inside. I did not want blood money, I just wanted to hold my baby son and get a chance to see him grow up. Then about fourteen months after Dylan's death we obtained a copy of his medical records and we saw that there was nearly an hour lapse between our sons struggle (and serious drop in heart rate which signaled he was in distress) and when the doctor finally began a cesarean section, a measure that might have saved his life had it happened much sooner. Instead that hour led to his death and changed our lives.

I talked to a well known attorney who specializes in medical malpractice cases and was informed that the statue of limitations had passed. We had just one year to grieve, heal and begin to ask questions. There was nothing we could do to ensure my doctor would not make the same mistakes and possibly hurt someone else. This haunted me until I learned that this same doctor retired (after an extremely short medical career) and no longer has an active license to practice in the state of Oregon. We were lucky that way. She could still be delivering babies and I would be wondering how many more were "stillborn".

We are hearing a lot about measure 35, most of it funded by the OMA and AMA and the insurance industry who are trying hard to convince us that medical malpractice lawsuits are spiraling out of control. The proponents of Measure 35 want you to believe that this is an issue about keeping quality medical care, especially in the rural areas of our state. Oregon voters are smarter than that. The truth is that this measure is more about deciding the absolute value of a life. This measure isn't just about doctors and lawyers. This is about you and me and an industry that needs to be reigned in.

The insurance industry is not regulated by the Federal government, instead each individual state has a department that oversees the insurance companies selling policies in that state. In our case, the Oregon Insurance Division in Salem is responsible for overseeing the industry. There are three consumer advocates that handle complaints related to the medical field. Three employees cover the entire state! How can we feel secure that our needs are being addressed or even being looked out for?

According to Terrie Troxel, President and CEO of the Insurance Institute of America, the insurance industry is financially healthy and profitable. The insurance industry has been profitable before, during and since the so-called insurance crises of the mid 1980s. Nationwide, the insurance industry averages profits of 18.5 percent annually. The average is over 60 percent higher in Oregon, where the average annual insurance industry profits are 30.4 percent. These numbers do not show an industry that is struggling over "jackpot awards." The truth is in the numbers.

So they want you to believe that injured people are claiming huge pay outs and we are at risk of losing good doctors who can't afford malpractice insurance and yet instead of pointing inward and acknowledging there is room for some belt tightening, they point at families like mine.

Johns Hopkins lists medical errors as being the third leading cause of death in the US. Even using a lower estimate you are more likely to die as the result of a medical error than you are to die in a car crash! We must hold doctors to a high standard and vote no on measure 35. Our own lives may depend on it.