I have had a stronger objection to tort reform than most ‘conservative’ minded. I generally object to legislative interference in the judicial process. I do not like lawmakers adjudicating cases they have not heard, not do I like judges creating laws out of judicial rulings.

Yet it is hard to argue that the tort reform enacted in Texas has not had many of the positive consequences tort reform advocates promised. Lower malpractice premiums has led to thousands of doctors moving to Texas and filling positions in many small towns needing doctors. It has also improved the business climate.

Read the story in The WSJ online.
Why Doctors Are Heading for Texas
By JOSEPH NIXON

Excerpts:

In 2003 and in 2005, Texas enacted a series of reforms to the state’s civil justice system. They are stunning in their success. Texas Medical Liability Trust, one of the largest malpractice insurance companies in the state, has slashed its premiums by 35%, saving doctors some $217 million over four years. There is also a competitive malpractice insurance industry in Texas, with over 30 companies competing for business. This is driving rates down.

The result is an influx of doctors so great that recently the State Board of Medical Examiners couldn’t process all the new medical-license applications quickly enough. The board faced a backlog of 3,000 applications. To handle the extra workload, the legislature rushed through an emergency appropriation last year.

Now many of the newly arriving doctors are heading to rural or underserved parts of the state. Four new anesthesiologists have headed to Beaumont, for example. Meanwhile, San Antonio has experienced a 52% growth in the number of new doctors.

The full costs of large settlements and runaway malpractice suits may never be known. But it is clear that the costs were paid for by consumers through the increased price of goods, by pensioners through diminished stock prices, and by workers through lost jobs. Another group often overlooked is those who are priced out of health care, or who didn’t receive charity care because doctors were squeezed by tort lawyers. Frivolous lawsuits hit the uninsured the hardest.

Texas recently became home to more Fortune 500 companies than New York and California. Things are trending well for the Lone Star State. Anecdotally, we can see that while doctors are moving in, trial lawyers are packing up and heading west. They’re GTC — Gone to California.