New York Personal Injury News & NYC Legal Current Events

New York State Ponders Medical Malpractice Liability Caps

As many other states are debating whether or not putting caps on non-economic medical malpractice awards, New York State has also decided to consider the reform. While some say that the med mal caps will save the state money and also lower insurance premiums, others argue that medical malpractice victims will not get the compensation that they rightly deserve under the law. Still others believe that the medical malpractice reform is not even constitutional.

The medical malpractice award caps are one of seventy-nine different recommendations put forth by a task force assembled by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo accepted all of the recommendations without exception and then made them part of the coming year’s budget, where be believes he can save millions of dollars in spending.

However, the New York Assembly, which is dominated by democrats, approved the budget without approving the medical malpractice caps. Many representatives commented on the move by saying that limiting caps is simply not fair to medical malpractice victims who often suffer terribly because of doctor mistakes and who have the rest of their lives altered permanently due to hospital errors.

While Cuomo believes that medical malpractice caps will save New York up to $419 million per year, democrats said that that money would be taken away from those with permanent disabilities due to doctor mistakes and hospital mistakes. Instead, the democrats believe that medical malpractice reforms should focus on getting better care for New Yorkers in the first place – and preventing medical malpractice altogether.

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