Pennsylvania Medical Society to Governor: Best Option Is to Suspend and Delink
The following is a statement from Peter S. Lund, MD, president of the Pennsylvania Medical Society, regarding an abatement program to relieve the high costs of medical liability insurance. Dr. Lund is a practicing urologist from Erie, Pa.
With issues related to the MCARE abatement and health care reform unresolved as the year ends, today the Pennsylvania Medical Society calls upon Governor Edward Rendell to immediately suspend collection of the annual MCARE assessment until Pennsylvania’s legislators return to Harrisburg and have further discussion on the future of health care in Pennsylvania.
The Pennsylvania Medical Society continues to support health care reform including patient safety, quality improvements, and health coverage for the uninsured as it has in the past. Unfortunately, as of today, there are issues adding pressure to the current health care climate that could jeopardize the immediate future of health care delivery. And, without an abatement program which stalled in the final hours of the legislative year or a suspension of the MCARE assessment collection, Pennsylvania physicians are faced with significant unanticipated increases in medical liability insurance costs on January 1. As such, this leaves little time for Pennsylvania’s physicians to prepare for the steep and sudden increase. The abatement program has been a successful strategy used to lower the cost of medical liability insurance which in return keeps physicians in the state and makes Pennsylvania more attractive to practice medicine especially for young physicians. The Pennsylvania Medical Society believes this abatement program is greatly needed as it has helped to stabilize the number of physicians in the state.
Already, many members of both the Pennsylvania House and Senate on both sides of the aisle realize medical liability insurance costs are expensive and thus support continuation of MCARE abatements. Further, Governor Rendell is on record as saying he supports continuation. Since everyone wants to continue the abatement, it only makes sense to suspend assessment collections to give our elected leaders time to reach an agreement.
Furthermore, after suspending MCARE assessment collection, the Pennsylvania Medical Society calls upon Governor Rendell and legislators to delink the MCARE abatement program from other projects related to health care reform. By doing so, this will allow members of both the Pennsylvania House and Senate to address this issue independent of other items. It will also allow them the opportunity to move more quickly in January to preserve access to care in our state through the abatement program.
Finally, the Pennsylvania Medical Society does recognize that great effort was given by many of our legislators to try to bring this issue to a conclusion before leaving Harrisburg for the holidays. As such, the Pennsylvania Medical Society applauds the Pennsylvania Senate for its bi-partisan effort during the final legislative days of the year.
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The patient-doctor relationship has been the priority of the Pennsylvania Medical Society since its founding in 1848. The Medical Society listens to concerns of both patients and doctors to improve the delivery of health care services. To learn more about the Pennsylvania Medical Society, visit its website at www.pamedsoc.org or its consumer website at www.myfamilywellness.org.
Last Updated: 7/31/2008