These families’ stories of harm in the health care system inspire Consumer Watchdog’s work to improve patient safety, help injured patients get justice and hold those who commit medical malpractice accountable.Meet the families fighting for injured patients.
In 1975, California politicians capped compensation for patients injured by medical negligence at $250,000. Forty-five years after it was enacted, the cap has never been adjusted for inflation. It is worth less than $50,000 today. The cap prevents many patients from ever getting justice, and deepens the racial inequalities in the health care system, disproportionately harming low income patients, communities of color, women and children. More about caps.
The families of children permanently harmed by medical negligence have qualified the Fairness for Injured Patients Act (FIPA) initiative for the November 2022 California ballot. Learn more and sign up to support the measure to update the cap and restore patients’ access to justice.
The Medical Board of California is responsible for regulating doctors in the state of California. Their mandate is patient protection. Yet, for four decades, the Board has failed to protect patients, allowing negligent doctors who repeatedly harm or even kill their patients to continue practicing with impunity. Learn more about Consumer Watchdog’s fights in the legislature and at the Medical Board to hold doctors accountable and make patients safe.
California became the first state in the nation to require doctors to disclose before a patient’s appointment if they are on probation for sexual assault or other serious misconduct. The law was blocked by the medical lobby until the MeToo movement helped ensure the voices of survivors of physician sexual assault were heard. Read about the victory for patient safety.
A seven-year battle by a father who lost his young children to reckless overprescribing culminated in a mandate for California doctors to review a patient’s prescription history before prescribing opioids and other dangerous narcotics.
By Kerry Klein, KVPR - CENTRAL VALLEY PUBLIC RADIO
August 5, 2020
https://www.kvpr.org/post/deaths-mothers-infants-during-childbirth-prom…
Click here to listen to the audio of this radio broadcast segment.
Initiative would raise cap on selected cases, extend deadline for medical negligence cases
By Evan Symon, CALIFORNIA GLOBE
July 28, 2020
https://californiaglobe.com/section-2/medical-negligence-compensation-c…
By John Wildermuth, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
July 24, 2020
https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/California-measure-raising…
With 12 ballot measures already scheduled for a vote in California in November, the first initiative has qualified for the 2022 election, with two others well on the way.
By Ryan Byrne, BALLOTPEDIA NEWS
July 24, 2020
https://news.ballotpedia.org/2020/07/24/first-2022-state-ballot-measure…
The first state ballot measure for 2022 qualified for the ballot in California on July 21, 2020.
By Timothy Darragh, BESTWIRE
July 24, 2020
http://news.ambest.com/newscontent.aspx?altsrc=108&refnum=227001
A ballot initiative to lift the 45-year-old cap on quality-of-life and survivor benefits will go before California voters in 2022.
By Staff Writers, INSURANCE JOURNAL
July 22, 2020
https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/west/2020/07/22/576522.htm
Californians will have to wait until the pandemic ends to vote on an initiative to change the state’s medical malpractice cap.
Proponents of a measure to change California’s medical malpractice cap announced today they have reportedly collected 900,000 signatures, enough to qualify the initiative for the November 2022 ballot.
By Adam Beam, ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 22, 2020
https://apnews.com/01ba9661168ba6f07ada1d6390cb7d6c
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California patients could get more money from medical malpractice lawsuits under a ballot initiative that is now eligible for the 2022 November election.
By Victoria Collver, POLITICO PRO
July 22, 2020
2022 WATCH: An initiative to raise the 45-year-old cap on medical malpractice compensation for injured patients has qualified for the ballot — but voters will have to wait until the November 2022 ballot to vote on it, POLITICO’s Victoria Colliver reports.
Los Angeles, CA — Having collected 900,000 signatures and raised over $4 million, the survivors of medical negligence behind a California ballot measure to adjust California’s 45-year-old cap on quality of life and survivor damages announced today that the Secretary of State has certified the initiative for the November 2022 ballot.
Los Angeles, CA — Having collected 900,000 signatures and raised over $4 million, the survivors of medical negligence behind a California ballot measure to adjust California’s 45-year-old cap on quality of life and survivor damages announced today that the Secretary of State has certified the initiative for the November 2022 ballot.