Dr. Feelgood
Commentary by Rick Reiff
PIGS FLY, THE MOON IS MADE OF BLEU CHEESE AND DOCTORS are fleeing Nevada for California to escape high legal costs.
The last assertion is true.
Doctors in some states are being hit with four-fold increases in their malpractice premiums, assuming they can even find an insurance policy anymore. Among those affected are doctors in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Oregon and Nevada.
But get this: California’s doctors are in much healthier shape, thanks to the state’s $250,000 maximum jury award for pain and suffering in malpractice cases. The cap, a key feature of the landmark 1975 tort-reform legislation, has withstood legal challenges and serves as a national model for states that are trying to rein in runaway malpractice costs.
The Los Angeles Times, in reporting on the phenomenon last month, highlighted the case of Dr. Cheryl Edwards, who moved her obstetrics and gynecology practice from the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson to West LA to get malpractice-insurance relief.
Yours truly often criticizes California’s legal system. This time, I applaud it.
Energy, Cont’d
GRAY DAVIS’ TOUGH TALK ON ENERGY TO THE SAN DIEGO UNION -Tribune, parts of which were rerun in this space last week, contrasts with the picture of a detached Davis that emerges from the recent state Senate testimony of “energy czar” David Freeman. Freeman, chief negotiator of the state’s $43 billion worth of long-term energy contracts, said Davis “expressed no interest” in the details of the contracts which Davis now wants to renegotiate. Here are excerpts of Freeman’s testimony, taken from the March 22 issue of the Sacramento-based Morning Report. The italicized remarks are by state Senate President Pro Tempore John Burton, D-San Francisco.
The governor said, “David (Freeman), Mike (Peevey) and the other guy (Vikram Budharaja), you go negotiate these contracts.” And nobody ever said, “Here’s what we’re doing. Here’s what we’re paying.” You just did it and it went up to (Department of Water Resources) Director Hannigan? And Hannigan signed them. I mean somebody in the horseshoe, like every now and then, “Dave what are we paying and how are we doing?”
There was no cross-examination, or second-guessing or advice.
How about just like, “By the way, what are we paying to date?”
Let’s review the situation. There was already a public announcement that they had done a bid before I got there. These were non-binding bids but they put out the information that the average of the long-term contracts is going to be 6.9 cents.
This is kind of idle curiosity by me. Nobody down there had the idle curiosity. “How are the contracts going” or, “What are we paying?” Not second-guessing. Not overriding. Just say, “Hey, what are the cost of these contr…”
The Governor made it clear when he called me and asked me to come up here, he was not going to second-guess the neg…
How about just, “What the hell is going on? Is it raining out today?” Nobody ever asked what was happening?
He wanted to know when we were going to get some deals done. We were hurting because the money was coming out of the treasury, so I kept getting pressure to get deals done.
I understand that. All I am trying to find out is a kind of yes or no. Not asking did they second-guess you. Not asking you better go back to the drawing board. Nobody even showed any interest in price, amount, cost, length, anything. Just “How we doing, get them done?”
I don’t recall.
Okay, that’s cool.
, Rick Reiff
