MICRA Lawsuit Measure Qualifies for November Ballot
MICRA Lawsuit Measure Qualifies for November Ballot — Stand and Fight Today!
On Thursday, May 15, 2014, the Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters verified the signatures submitted on behalf of trial lawyers and their front group, Consumer Watchdog, hoping to increase attorney fees at the expense of taxpayers, patients and community clinics across the state. This places the measure well over the threshold required to be placed on the November ballot.
For California physicians, this fight cannot be avoided.
If passed, this deceptive and hastily thrown together measure will drive up healthcare costs, threaten patient privacy, and force community clinics across the state to reduce or eliminate services to the populations that need them the most. Unless physicians stand to defeat this measure, California would be saddled with the consequences for years to come, all because trial lawyers who stand to gain from malpractice lawsuits carelessly threw together an initiative without regard for the public’s privacy or healthcare.
This same trial lawyer group is also sponsoring candidates across the state in their bids for the state legislature. The California Medical Association’s Political Action Committee (CALPAC) is working to defeat these candidates who would vote to change MICRA in the legislature.
We need your support to defeat the trial lawyers at the ballot box.
Please join your physician colleagues around California by contributing $1,000, $500, or $150 by clicking here today!
Your contribution to CALPAC today will go directly toward protecting MICRA and helping ensure that all Californians have access to quality and affordable healthcare.
Over the next few months, you’ll hear a lot of rhetoric from the proponents of the initiative, but really this is another example of special interest politics trying to fool the voters into thinking this about something that it’s not.
The authors of this proposal purposely threw non-MICRA provisions, like drug testing doctors, to disguise the real intent, which is to increase the limits on medical malpractice awards so that trial lawyers make even more money. The main supporter admitted that the drug testing provision was added not because it’s good policy, but because of good politics, telling the Los Angeles Times that “it’s the ultimate sweetener.”
We must reach every voter in California and educate them on the dangers of losing our MICRA protections. We cannot do this without your support. Please contribute $150, $500 or $1,000 to CALPAC today!
The initiative is bad for patients, taxpayers, and healthcare as a whole, and there has never been a greater need for physicians to band together and fight for our patients.
Again, I implore you to donate $1,000, $500 or $150 to CALPAC — the state’s largest physician run political action committee — so it can continue its aggressive efforts on behalf of California physicians.
Defeating the attacks on MICRA will be no small task, but together, I am confident we will be successful.
Sincerely,
Richard Thorp, MD
President, California Medical Association