Andy Lagomarsino • New Jersey Newsroom

Marcus Rayner, executive director of the New Jersey Lawsuit Reform Alliance, and Assemblywoman Amy Handlin (R-13), a co-sponsor of A-1982 representing Monmouth County, released the following statement following last week’s Assembly Health and Senior Services Committee hearing, which posted the bill for discussion.

“A-1982 concerns liability, standards of care, and insurance coverage for medical malpractice actions, and will provide for protections for doctors and healthcare providers, so that not as many frivolous lawsuits will be filed.

“As we have heard from many doctors and healthcare providers, New Jersey’s ratio of doctors to patients has reached a crisis. Of all the doctors that are trained in New Jersey, 60% go to other states once training is completed. The current gap between doctors and patients in New Jersey is 12 percent. A study by the New Jersey Council of Teaching Hospitals estimates that New Jersey will be short an additional 3,000 doctors in the next decade unless comprehensive changes are made to our state’s liability system. They just cannot afford to stay in New Jersey due to medical malpractice costs, on top of the high cost of doing business New Jersey.

Read entire story