Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse of Central Texas

Austin Business Journal
August 14, 2009

Austin Business Journal - by Stephanie Gibson

Voters clearly get it: we can’t have true national health care reform — including improved access to care — without medical liability reform.

Texas has proven what is possible. Thanks to changes approved by Texas voters in 2003, we now have sensible medical liability laws that have allowed doctors and other health care professionals to spend more time in the examination room and not the courtroom. Because of Texas’ tort reform, our state has more doctors practicing statewide and in historically underserved areas, as well as more specialists in high-risk practice areas.

Consider that Texas licensed 3,621 new doctors in 2008, the highest number of any year on record. The number of obstetricians practicing in rural Texas has grown by 27 percent, post-reform, and some 24 rural Texas counties have added at least one obstetrician, including 12 counties that previously had none. Overall, rural Texas has seen a 31 percent increase in emergency medicine physicians during the past six years. Put simply, reform works. Americans know this.

Let’s hope Congress listens.

Stephanie Gibson is executive director of Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse of Central Texas.