State Senate Republican Leader Louis C. DeLuca (R-Woodbury) today voted against a bill meant to address the growing crisis of doctors in high-risk specialties leaving the state due to growing medical malpractice insurance premiums. Senator DeLuca, who serves as ranking member of the General Assembly's Insurance Committee, opposed the bill because it failed to include any sort of cap on so-called "pain and suffering" damages. These pain and suffering awards have risen steadily over the past several years, and largely account for the unpredictability in underwriting and setting insurance rates.

"This bill is well intentioned and I know first hand how hard the working group tried to draft a compromise that would pass the legislature, but without some kind of cap on malpractice settlements, I don't think it's going to do much good," said Senator DeLuca. "We have a lot of doctors who are starting to find out that they can't afford to practice medicine in Connecticut, and that's something we should be very worried about. Unlike a lot of issues the legislature wrings its hands over, this situation with malpractice insurance premiums really is a 'crisis,' and it's unfortunate the legislature wasn't to make a real step towards keeping doctors in the state."

The legislature has debated the issue of medical malpractice insurance reforms for the past several years, and last session took action to create the working group that crafted this particular legislation. Instead of the working group proposal, Senator DeLuca has been a proponent of the so-called "Florida Cap" which caps non-economic damages at a million dollars. According to Senator DeLuca, the legislature is unlikely to address the issue of caps on pain and suffering awards in the near future, and instead lawmakers will most likely wait to see if today's legislation has any impact on insurance premiums.

"We've been talking about getting something done on medical malpractice for the past three years, so I guess I'd say I'm disappointed that what we ended up with is so insignificant," said Senator DeLuca. "The proponents of this legislation have said that there might be a one or two percent drop in rate increases, but when you're a doctor seeing 90% increases, dropping it down to 88% doesn't do a lot."