No on increased health costs

As an emergency-room doctor in San Francisco for more than 30 years, I see some of the city’s most critical patients — people suffering heart attacks, lifethreatening infections, gunshot wounds and more. Proposition 46, which seeks to increase the limit on the amount of medical malpractice lawsuit awards, is a critical threat to the health care of all Californians. The thoughtful response is to oppose it.

The initiative is a complicated, costly measure — written and funded by trial attorneys — which makes sweeping changes to California’s health system without any input from health care experts or medical practitioners.

It’s also deceptive. It uses alcohol and drug testing of doctors (whether they are on or off duty — unprecedented in the U.S.) to disguise the real intent, which is to lift the cap on the medical malpractice lawsuit awards to $1.1 million from $250,000, thereby raising attorney fees, while increasing costs for everybody else.

But, worst of all, it’s bad for health care and health access for low-income communities. It will cost the state and local governments hundreds of millions of dollars and it will make it harder for community clinics such as Planned Parenthood to provide specialty services.

With millions of newly insured patients looking for quality care under the Affordable Care Act, I can’t think of a worse possible time to increase cost and decrease access to trusted health providers. Vote no on Prop. 46.