The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a bill called the Help Efficient, Accessible, Low cost, Timely, Health Care Act of 2011 on March, 22, 2012. According to the American Association for Justice, this new bill aims to take away the rights of many injured patients and leave people at more risk for injuries from negligence in hospitals and other medical practices. They say that the bill essentially removes any desire for a doctor or surgeon to improve his or her safety measures. This is in part because any lawsuits that were filed against hospitals or physicians under this law would be capped. Damages would only be allotted that were under a certain amount. This means that the cost of medical negligence would be low, and many suffering patients would not be able to receive the damages they deserve.

According to the bill, the cap on damages is a one-size-fits-all. This means that whenever a person is injured because of medical malpractice, a defective drug, a malfunctioning device or nursing home abuse, the same damage would be allotted. The American Association for Justice believes that this bill is “beyond extreme” and will deny rights to millions who deserve to be compensated. The Institute of Medicine has reported that as many as 98,000 people worldwide die because of a medical issue that was not treated correctly, or that could have been prevented by better care. The AAJ requests that Congress take another look at the bill to determine whether or not they are putting patient safety first by passing it.

The bill goes under the name H.R. 5 and has become a hot topic among politicians. Currently, Arizona, Arkansas, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Wyoming have state constitutional prohibitions on damage caps in both medical malpractice and personal injury cases. In addition, Ohio and Oklahoma have constitutional prohibitions on medical malpractice when the situation includes a wrongful death. In Alabama, Georgia, Illinoi, New Hampshire, Oregon, and Washington, supreme courts have struck down statutorily enacted damage caps. Eight states have court challenges enacted right now which regard the constitutionality of the state’s medical malpractice cap. These states are California, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, and Texas.

The constant debate back and forth on this issue has led many states to take a stand. According to a study by Harvard University, almost all medical malpractice cases have value and are not frivolous attempts to gain money. 80 percent of these cases involved a person who was treated in a way that resulted in a physical disability or a wrongful death. Presently, men and women who are injured in a medical malpractice situation have the right to press charges. There is not federal cap on the damages that can be awarded as of now. Eventually, if a cap was instated, it would discourage people from suing, which would lower the amount of accountability in nursing homes and hospitals.

Also, this cap would make it so that people who lost a loved one due to a medical malpractice injury could receive the same finances as a person who was merely harmed. When a doctor withholds important information from a patient, injures that person by mistake, misdiagnoses that person, or fails to give them the care necessary to improve their health, then that individual or his or her family should have the right to seek an amount of compensation that covers all medical bills and pain and suffering. Remember that this is your right as an American, it is constitutional that you are able to seek whatever amount of damages you think necessary.