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Medical malpractice bill
now becomes state law; Ehrlich lobbying effort rebuffed; 5 other
vetoes also fall on eve of regular session
By David Nitkin and Andrew A. Green
Sun Staff
January 12, 2005
The Maryland General Assembly voted yesterday to override Gov.
Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s veto of a medical malpractice reform bill,
rebuffing an intense lobbying effort by the governor and setting a
tense partisan tone for the 90-day session that begins today.
Democrats praised themselves for bridging divides between the House
and Senate to craft a solution to the malpractice crisis. The
legislation, which now becomes law, limits increases in doctors'
malpractice insurance premiums and, to subsidize rates, subjects
HMOs to a tax now paid by other health insurers.
"In my heart of hearts, I know the governor is upstairs thanking
someone above that we overrode the veto, because we solved a major
problem for him," Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller said.
Ehrlich said he was "disappointed" in yesterday's outcome and called
the decision a "lost opportunity" to develop a more lasting health
care solution.
"A superfund for trial lawyers has been created, and I suspect that
was the goal," the governor said, in an apparent reference to the
bill's subsidy of insurance costs without some tort reform
provisions he sought. "If the goal here is to send a signal to the
rest of the country that Maryland is serious about protecting its
medical providers, I think we failed."
Ehrlich said Assembly leaders promised him they would use the
legislation as a starting point for more comprehensive legal
reforms, which he said he would introduce in the coming weeks. "I
suspect it's going to be real difficult, but we'll see how serious
they are," he said.
Recessing after they adopted a compromise bill a few days after
Christmas, lawmakers returned to the special session yesterday to
consider overrides of the malpractice veto and 18 other bills from
the 2004 session rejected by the governor.
As expected, the legislators allowed the governor's vetoes of two
other high-profile bills to stand - legislation that would have
limited university tuition increases to 5 percent a year for three
years and that would have established a $10.50 per hour "living
wage" for employees working for state contractors.
The tuition bill contained a temporary 10 percent increase in the
corporate income tax, which Ehrlich and business groups opposed.
Miller had indicated the bill would not survive in the Senate, so
the measure failed without a vote by delegates, allowing
conservative Democrats in swing districts to avoid casting a risky
but useless vote in favor of higher taxes.
Last week, Ehrlich promised a 5.7 percent increase in university
system funding, which won him votes to sustain the veto.
Still, the House and the Senate turned aside six of his vetoes in
all, drawing protests from Republicans who accused Democrats of
calculating to embarrass the state's first GOP governor in more than
30 years.
"We had not seen one single bill overridden in the previous
administration" of Democratic Gov. Parris N. Glendening, said House
minority whip Anthony J. O'Donnell. "It's a bad way to do business."
The outcome of the malpractice vote was uncertain into the
afternoon, and the House of Delegates delayed voting so Democrats
could corral the votes they needed.
Finally, Del. Samuel I. Rosenberg, a Baltimore Democrat, arrived at
his desk. He had been shuttled to Annapolis from the Newark, N.J.,
airport after cutting short a visit to Israel so he could vote for
the override.
The legislation passed in the House on an 85-50 vote, the exact
number of votes needed to reinstate the legislation.
"I'm a nice Democratic boy," Rosenberg said, describing his daylong
return from the Middle East, where he was on the same tour as
Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley. "All I did today was sit and press
one button."
The Senate overrode the malpractice bill on a 33-13 tally, four
votes above the required three-fifths supermajority. Two moderate
Democratic senators changed their votes from two weeks ago and
opposed the bill yesterday: Roy P. Dyson of Southern Maryland and
John C. Astle of Annapolis. Astle was one of three Anne Arundel
senators targeted in GOP advertisements that asked voters to contact
their lawmakers and urge them to reject new taxes.
Several Democratic delegates also abandoned their support of the
bill yesterday, including Clarence Davis, Marshall T. Goodwin and
Jill P. Carter, all of Baltimore, and Joseph J. "Sonny" Minnick of
Baltimore County.
Carter, an attorney, called the legislation "a terrible bill" that
did not contain enough restrictions and changes to insurance
companies. Minnick said he changed his vote because "my e-mails were
running 10-1 in favor of no HMO tax."
Ehrlich canceled appointments in the afternoon in a last-minute
attempt to cajole House Democrats into voting to sustain his
malpractice veto. When the final tally showed 85 votes in the House
chamber, Ehrlich's chief of staff, Steven L. Kreseski, standing on
tiptoe to peer through the windows of the second-floor gallery,
cursed softly to himself and walked away.
Ehrlich had rejected the legislation because he said it did not
contain sufficient limits on jury awards in lawsuits. He also
opposed a repeal of the HMO tax exemption, saying it would burden
working families. "It's the status-quo Annapolis solution," Ehrlich
said. "You got a problem, throw money at it."
Democratic lawmakers said it was not certain HMOs would pass the tax
on to consumers. "The vast bulk of people who have HMOs are not
low-income people," said Del. John Adams Hurson, a Montgomery County
Democrat. Even if the tax were passed on, it would cost families
less than 40 cents a month to solve the malpractice problem, Hurson
said.
While generally favoring the legislation, doctors and hospitals are
waiting to see how relief will arrive. Doctors have already made
their first-quarter insurance bill payments, which were 33 percent
higher than a year ago, and don't know whether they will receive
rebates.
MedChi Executive Director T. Michael Preston said it is imperative
that the Maryland Insurance Administration work quickly to develop a
mechanism that provides them relief. "That conversation needs to
begin tomorrow," Preston said.
The Assembly also voted to override Ehrlich vetoes of these bills,
which now become law:
Open meetings: The bill guarantees that any person may file a
complaint in Circuit Court alleging that a public body violated the
open meetings act. It is a response to a Howard County court ruling
that only a person adversely affected by a public body's failure to
follow that law may sue.
Elder care: The bill places limits on a program that allows HMO-like
"community care organizations" to use state funds to care for the
elderly and disabled in settings other than nursing homes. The
bill's lead sponsor, Sen. Paula C. Hollinger, said seniors prefer
community care but the state should try the idea as a pilot program
before implementing it statewide.
Equal pay commission: The bill establishes a commission to study
disparities between the pay of men and women and of whites and
minorities. In his veto message, Ehrlich said the state is already
governed by "equal pay for equal work" laws and has received no
complaints of violations in a decade.
Ehrlich and the Assembly now look ahead to the regular session,
although neither the governor nor legislative leaders have said what
they hope to accomplish. With partisanship at an all-time high,
battles over the budget, slot machines, stem cell research and other
hot-button issues are likely to rage until the 2006 election.
Ehrlich insists he will stick to principles and change the culture
of Annapolis. Democratic lawmakers say they are emboldened by their
cooperation on medical malpractice.
"Through all of this trauma of split government, the legislature has
stood up and made sure K-12 education is fully funded, that tuition
rates don't keep going up the way they have, that doctors remain in
the state and that quality health care is available for all
Marylanders," Busch said.
Sun staff writers Ivan Penn and Sumathi Reddy contributed to this
article.
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