By John Wagner
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 1, 2006
The running mates of Maryland's two leading candidates for governor offered competing visions yesterday for containing the cost of medical malpractice insurance when relief provided by the legislature is scheduled to end in 2009.
Appearing before the state's largest doctors group, lieutenant governor hopeful Kristen Cox (R) said only Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s administration would push legal reforms needed to curb payouts in malpractice cases, which doctors blame for insurance premium increases of recent years.
"It will not happen in any meaningful, substantial way with Democrats around us," Cox, the secretary of the state Department of Disabilities, told members of the Maryland State Medical Society. "This administration is going to be your friend, your supporter and your ally in this cause."
The event refocused attention on medical malpractice, which was the focus of a contentious debate in Annapolis two years ago.
Addressing the group separately, Prince George's Del. Anthony G. Brown (D) said he and his running mate, Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley (D), would be open to changes in the legal system.
The state should also consider extending the subsidies beyond 2009, Brown said. And, he said, Maryland should establish special courts for medical issues, which would help weed out frivolous malpractice cases.
"I don't stand here today to tell you the problem is fixed," Brown said.
Although Cox and Brown have been overshadowed by the dominant personalities on the top of their respective tickets, both are central to their parties' outreach efforts in this election. Ehrlich's pick of Cox, who is legally blind, was considered historic and was intended to bolster Ehrlich's standing with women. Brown, meanwhile, is the only African American on the Democrat's statewide ticket as the party tries to fend off Republican overtures to black voters.
The candidates addressed a range of other health-care issues during the forum, held at a hotel in Linthicum, but the most spirited discussion focused on medical malpractice.
That issue was the focus of an extraordinary special session of the General Assembly called by Ehrlich in late 2004 that both eroded his relationships with Democratic legislative leaders and strained his ties to MedChi, as the state doctors group is known in Annapolis.
The bill passed by lawmakers created a state fund to subsidize malpractice premiums -- doctors insured by the state's largest carrier were facing 33 percent rate increases -- and included some modest legal reforms.
After having spent months drumming up public interest in the issue, Ehrlich vetoed the bill, arguing that the legal changes did not do enough to limit payouts to plaintiffs. Ehrlich said he also objected to the legislature's decision to pay for the premium relief with a tax on HMOs.
Both MedChi and the state's hospital association urged lawmakers to override Ehrlich's veto, which they did.
Evidence of the strain that put on Ehrlich's relationship with the doctors group surfaced yesterday as Cox fielded questions from MedChi members.
Joseph Snyder, a Montgomery County ophthalmologist, told Cox that he is a Republican and appreciated Ehrlich's commitment to legal reforms. But "without the bill, we were high and dry," he said. "You have to be practical to get things done in this state."
Cox said Ehrlich feared that if the bill became law, it would be difficult to get the legislature to embrace additional legal reforms. But rates are likely to rise again, Cox said, if changes are not made soon in the way damages are calculated in malpractice cases and caps are placed on how much plaintiffs can receive for pain and suffering.
"In 2009, we're going to be back to the same boat we were in before," Cox said.
Another questioner, Scott Hagaman, the incoming president of MedChi, asked where Ehrlich is getting his information about medical malpractice. Noting his position with the organization, Hagaman said: "I would have hoped to develop a relationship with him. That hasn't happened."
Though MedChi does not make formal endorsements, it distributed a score card in the 2002 gubernatorial race that made it clear the group believed Ehrlich better represented its interests than his opponent, then-Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (D).
This year, only O'Malley has responded to MedChi's request for the candidates' positions on issues of interest, said Martin P. Wasserman, the group's executive director. He said MedChi has not decided whether to put out a score card this election.
Ehrlich and O'Malley also made public appearances yesterday.
In Aberdeen, Ehrlich announced a new state Web site, http://www.mdgangs.info , that provides information about gangs in Maryland. He also announced $200,000 in funding for youth programs at Boys & Girls Clubs around the state.
O'Malley made campaign stops in two Republican-leaning counties, Cecil and Harford, as well as one heavily Democratic one, Prince George's.
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