• 18
  • August
    2011

Proposition 12 was approved by Texas voters in 2003. Since then, it has been used as an example of what good tort reform looks like - at least as Joseph Nixon sees it in the story he wrote for the New York Post, entitled, "Thanks for the doctors, New York." Nixon writes that doctors have flocked to Texas to avoid the high costs associated with claims for medical malpractice.

Here's how he ends his piece: "The welcome mat is out for [doctors] in Texas."

It sure is.

As we wrote in a post on August 6, there's a Texas brain surgeon on trial for negligence in Minnesota - and his license to practice medicine is suspended in that state - but the Texas Medical Board did nothing about it.

In fact, it kept the welcome mat out for him, allowing the surgeon to set up shop in Texas with no strings attached, while he continues to be sued in Minnesota for negligence.

Yet Nixon writes, "That's the real impact of good legal reform - the skillful care provided by 26,000 extra doctors." 26,000 is the number of doctors who have come to Texas from other states since Proposition 12 passed.

Higher numbers of doctors have no bearing on "skillful care." Skillful care is what patients expect in every state. That's why there are medical negligence laws. As the trial of the brain surgeon illustrates, not every doctor maintains an acceptable level of skill or care.

Source: New York Post, "Thanks for the doctors, New York," by Joseph M. Nixon, 08/16/11