Boooring!
By John F. Sugg
One indicator that the just-finished Georgia legislative session was a snore-producer: At the April 12 Creative Loafing “Political Party,” the hottest debate was over a piece of legislation that passed last year.
Senate Bill 3 — passed in 2005’s session — was the legislature’s obsequious kowtow to Big Medicine and Big Insurance. The law caps medical malpractice awards at $350,000. It was billed as a way to reduce medical insurance premiums.
But as Political Party panelist Allie Wall, executive director of the consumer advocacy group Georgia Watch, mentioned, insurance premiums haven’t decreased, medical costs have climbed, and common citizens “have been denied their legal rights” to recover damages.