Congress of California Seniors Endorses Proposition 46 To Protect Patient Safety And Save Lives, says Consumer Watchdog Campaign

SACRAMENTO, Calif., July 10, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Congress of California Seniors, representing organizations serving hundreds of thousands of Californians, announced its endorsement of Proposition 46 today, joining proponent Bob Pack and a broad coalition of consumer groups, health care professionals, and victims of medical negligence and prescription drug abuse.

"For four decades, the justice system has discriminated against California's seniors when they try to hold negligent doctors accountable. Victims and their families deserve compensation when they are harmed by medical malpractice, for lost medical bills, wage loss and for the immense pain and suffering that can result from a doctor's negligence," said Hank Lacayo, State President of the Congress of California Seniors. "A 39-year-old law imposed on our seniors by the Legislature has artificially capped the value of a senior's life at $250,000 -- an amount that has never been indexed to inflation. This law hurts everyone who doesn't have an income, including seniors, children, stay-at-home parents, and the disabled. Proposition 46 is a sensible step in the right direction and will protect seniors in hospitals and in the courtroom. California voters should vote YES on Prop 46."

Lacayo said that retirees are especially hard-hit by the discriminatory cap. For example, Michael Markow was left a quadriplegic after a doctor's error during a simple procedure. Mr. Markow was an active 63-year-old husband, father, and grandfather. Experiencing neck pain, he scheduled an appointment for a routine pain injection. The pain management doctor botched the simple 11-minute procedure. Mr. Markow began to lose the use of his limbs and was rushed to the hospital where he remained on the brink of death for a year. When Mr. Markow finally left the hospital it was as a quadriplegic. As a retiree, Mr. Markow had no wage loss. As a result, the $3.5 million a jury awarded Mr. Markow for the pain and suffering of the permanent loss of his limbs was reduced to $250,000 because of the 39-year-old cap.

Proposition 46 would update an outdated law that discriminates against children, stay-at-home parents, the disabled, and the elderly – all of whom who don't produce an income – by indexing the cap for almost four decades of inflation.

Proposition 46 would also:

• Require random drug and alcohol testing of doctors and testing after an adverse event in a hospital, modeled on the successful federal program for airline pilots;
• Require physicians to report suspected drug or alcohol abuse at work by a colleague;
• Require that physicians check the state's existing prescription drug database before prescribing narcotics and other addictive drugs to first-time patients to curb doctor-shopping drug abusers;
• Maintain the existing cap on attorneys fees in medical negligence cases.

The Congress of California Seniors (CCS), founded in 1977, is a statewide nonprofit advocacy organization that focuses its primary attention on legislative and consumer issues that impact older adults. As an umbrella organization for more than a hundred affiliated groups, CCS serves a combined membership of several hundred thousand Californians. Its broad-based coalition includes trade union retirees, retired federal/state public employee organizations, senior centers, tenant and homeowner associations, other senior advocacy groups, church groups, and a variety of other agencies and associations.

The proponent of Proposition 46 is Bob Pack, whose two young children were killed by a drunk and drugged doctor-shopping driver who had been overprescribed thousands of pills from Kaiser physicians despite not having physical symptoms.

Medical negligence is the third leading cause of death in the United States according to a study in the Journal of Patient Safety that estimated up to 440,000 people die each year because of preventable mistakes in hospitals. The California Medical Board reported estimates that nearly one in five doctors will abuse drugs or alcohol during their lifetimes. Drug overdose deaths in the U.S. have more than tripled since 1990 and most of those deaths are due to prescription drugs. Proposition 46 creates new protections to detect and deter medical negligence, overprescribing of prescription drugs, and doctor drug and alcohol abuse.

Opponents of Proposition 46's patient safety provisions, mostly hospitals and large insurance companies, have already raised $34 million for its defeat.

Learn more about Proposition 46 at www.yeson46.org.

SOURCE Consumer Watchdog Campaign