Medical Malpractice Leg Update from Dick Taylor at NCAJ

We are fully engaged in the General Assembly. I want to thank those who

have given generously of their time and financial resources to make our

effort strong - and strong it is.  

Our main focus for the last couple of weeks has been medical 

malpractice - but we are monitoring and weighing in on criminal issues 

and awaiting a workers' comp bill and a comprehensive tort reform bill.

We will not only be working on tort reform. 

For example, on the criminal front, we managed to salvage suppression 

of evidence for substantial violation of 15A from Rep. Stam's bill on 

the exclusionary rule. Read the latest version of the bill.

We are seeking a modification of the Castle Doctrine bill so people 

can't shoot anyone they think is unwanted on someone else's property. 

The bill in some form will likely pass and provide protection to owners

and occupants, but hopefully not to passers-by who shoot into our 

yards. We are monitoring and will fight for IDS funding. 

But, let me tell you about medical malpractice.  We did very well at 

the public hearing on S 33 yesterday and we are going on TV in the 

Raleigh market tomorrow evening.  You can see the ad at 

Let Juries Decide and YouTube now.

We want to have the ad go viral so link to the ad on your website, 

facebook page, twitter account and LinkedIn page and send to all your 

contacts.  We want this out.  

This is only the first ad on the first subject on which we are engaged.

We will meet all attacks on you and your clients in every area of 

practice.

Thanks again for your support. 

Best regards,

Dick

Richard M. Taylor, Jr. 

Chief Executive Officer

North Carolina Advocates for Justice

Please read the attached NCAJ Press Release ("Insurance CorporateGreed Skews Data on Injured Workers") and spread the word!

You also can find the Press Release on the NCAJ Website Home Page under "Advocacy."  The Press Release is entitled, "Insurance Corporate Greed Skews Data on Injured Workers."  Here's a link to the NCAJ Website: http://www.ncaj.com/

 NCAJ – Press Release
 
Contact: 919.412.0630 or 919.272.5621
 
Don’t Be Fooled…
Report Funded by Insurance Companies Skews Data
Poll Shows Broad Opposition to Artificial Cap on Benefits to Injured Workers
“This morning we had a glimpse of the insurance industry at its least attractive,” said Dick Taylor, CEO of the North Carolina Advocates for Justice. “The Workers Compensation Research Institute’s report is an unfortunate example of insurance companies and corporations seeking government subsidies by shifting their expenses to taxpayers.”
Background: The Workers Compensation Research Institute is funded by insurance companies and large corporations and routinely issues reports that support ‘reforms’ that will increase their contributors’ profits.
In its latest report, WCRI claims the average payment per claim for injured workers in North Carolina is extraordinarily high – higher, it says, than in 15 other major states. That is misleading for a simple reason: in North Carolina, unlike other states, workers’ compensation doesn’t cover many injuries sustained in the normal work routine. We have fewer claims. And they are for more severe injuries. So, naturally, our average payment per claim is higher.
The fair measurement of workers’ compensation costs in North Carolina is straightforward: Are employers’ costs for workers’ compensation insurance out of line with other states?
They aren’t. The cost of workers’ compensation insurance in North Carolina is, and has been for years, at or near the national average. For example, four months ago a study by the highly regarded Oregon State Department of Consumer and Business Services reported that North Carolina ranks twenty-third in the nation in the average cost of workers’ compensation insurance.
We do even better in comparison with the states in WCRI’s study. Eight (California, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin) of the sixteen states in the WCRI report have higher costs than North Carolina, and one (Michigan) has identical costs. Each of these states, according to WCRI, pays lower benefits to its injured workers. In other words, in contrast to the other WCRI states, North Carolina delivers good benefits to injured workers, at low cost to employers.
Following the orders of its insurance industry patrons, WCRI misleadingly reports only half the facts, and hides the truth: North Carolina has a workers’ compensation system that is fair to workers and employers.
Shifting the costs to taxpayers: Right now, corporations and insurance companies are lobbying the legislature to cut benefits to injured workers. Under their proposal, even if a worker
is injured on the job and continues to be totally disabled, his or her workers’ compensation will end after 500 weeks.
Consider what happens then. Most disabled workers will end up on Social Security, SSI Disability, Medicare, Medicaid or Food Stamps. And the costs insurance companies have been paying – for injured workers’ medical care and lost wages – will be shifted onto taxpayers.
______________________________
Additional Key Facts
Claim: Corporations say workers’ compensation rates are costing North Carolina jobs.
Fact: In 9 out of the last 10 years, Site Selection Magazine has ranked North Carolina the best place in the country to do business.
Fact: Even during the recession, North Carolina was 4th in nation in new jobs created over the last 12 months.
Fact: The rate -- set by the Commissioner of Insurance -- that employers pay for workers’ compensation insurance has dropped 21.9% since 1995.
Fact: North Carolina’s workers’ compensation costs are lower than South Carolina’s or Tennessee’s. (They are higher than Virginia’s but we provide substantially better benefits to injured workers.)
Fact: No injured worker can receive workers’ compensation benefits of more than 2/3rd of his or her salary.
Fact: Regardless of the pre-injury wage, the maximum benefit any injured worker can receive for lost wages is $836 per week.
Poll: In October 2010, Public Policy Polling asked registered voters if they favored cutting off benefits to disabled workers after 500 weeks. 66% of the voters said No, while only 14% said Yes. Opposition to a cap on workers’ compensation benefits cuts across both ideological and party lines. It is opposed by Liberals (78%), Moderates (67%) and Conservatives (60%); and by Democrats (72%), Republicans (62%) and Independents (56%).
For more information, go to www.ncaj.com and follow the news on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/North-Carolina-Advocates-for-Justice/74910045184