First, a disclaimer. My father is a doctor. However, I should also note that his specialty, radiology, actually benefits from the current civil justice laws because other doctors order extra (unnecessary) exams. My father estimates that 10 percent of the studies he reads are not needed. By the way, the costs for these tests are passed on to you in the form of higher insurance premiums, but that’s another column. In any case, if you think familial ties have biased me on the tort reform issue, then feel free to read something else.
Mississippi Governor Ronnie Musgrove has called a three-tiered special session. Making full use of the limited powers granted to him by the Mississippi Constitution, he has set the agenda so that the Legislature must deal with private prison funding before taking on the biggest issue this state has seen in some time: tort reform. This is issue is so large, in fact, that Musgrove split into two separate debates: tort reform for the doctors and a more wide-ranging “civil justice reform” for the business community.
Members of the Legislature are crying foul because they would prefer to debate tort reform than private prison funding because all the legislators are feeling serious political heat from both sides of the reform issue.
Why is it suprising to the Legislature that Musgrove is using every tool in his possession to push his agenda. He doesn’t have that many tools to begin with, as the Mississippi Constitution doesn’t give the governor much power. The Speaker of the House is actually the most powerful elected official in the state because he sets the Legislative agenda. The only way Musgrove can influence the agenda is to call a special session.
Besides, private prisons are, in fact, over funded. However, the private prison industry has a cadre of lobbyists in Jackson making sure that Mississippi taxpayers continue to pay for prison beds that are never used. Musgrove has railed against this waste of tax dollars for a long time, and those legislators who are in the pocket of the private prison industry ought to let the governor cut this pork.
The truth is that this Legislature, as demonstrated by the Congressional redistricting debacle and the state flag mess, prefers inaction when any issue more controversial than making the teddy bear the state toy comes up for a vote.
Musgrove, however, isn’t helping matters by cynically splitting up the tort reform debate. He hopes to placate the doctors by setting up a insurance pool funded by issuing state bonds with tort reform for those who participate in the pool.
This is a really bad idea. Mississippi has no business in the insurance industry. Also, it seems to me that given a choice between going into debt for 10 million dollars and legislating noneconomic caps in the state’s civil justice code, it would be a much cheaper to change the code.
Musgove’s idea falls short of addressing the real problem: an out-of-control civil justice system. It will also leave the business community out in the cold. Businessmen should have the same legal rules to which doctors are subject. Doctors shouldn’t receive preferable treatment simply because their position is more politically sympathetic.
The problem is that Mississippi is not just facing a health care crisis, but a business crisis as well. It defies the logic of cause-and-effect to think that a long series of “jackpot justice” decisions would not scare both doctors and businesses away.
Legislators, who keep a close watch on the pulse of their respective communities, know that they are in a real bind. On one hand, most of the Legislature are Democrats. Trial lawyers are the biggest donors to the Democratic Party. While Musgrove is a Democrat and received large amounts of trial lawyer money in his last election, the trial lawyers are about to drop him and support Attorney General Mike Moore in the next gubernatorial election. Hence, Musgrove doesn’t feel quite as much loyalty to the lawyers as the legislators do.
On the other hand, legislators know that the legal climate really is costing the state jobs and doctors. Since any action on the matter will anger one group, the Legislature would prefer to maintain status quo with enough hand wringing to get the pro-reform group to support them for the next election. After all, the state Legislature is not being dragged into court by ambulance chasers hunting for a quick settlement, and it can’t move to a neighboring state.
The legislators do, however, need money to fund that next re-election campaign. Since the lawsuit industry is the only thing booming in Mississippi right now, look for the Legislature to acknowledge which side of the bread the butter is on and continue its do-nothing ways.
Wilson Boyd is a senior economics major. Send comments to [email protected].