03/10/2008
NFIB/Colorado Opposes SB 164.
SB 164 raises the non-economic damages caps and creates a new category of damages for disfigurement. SB 164 will increase the cost of healthcare putting even more of a burden on Colorado's healthcare industry and small businesses.
SB 164 will force Colorado healthcare professional to practice even more defensive medicine in order to prevent an increase in lawsuits. This results in higher healthcare costs which will be passed along to those small businesses that provide healthcare coverage.
SB 164 could cause a loss of doctors in high risk practices such as Heart Specialists, OB/GYNs, and most important could cause primary care doctors in rural Colorado to move their practices or simply close. Forty-seven counties in Colorado are already designated, in whole or part, as health professional shortage areas.
Small business owners and their employees already are at a breaking point concerning the affordability of healthcare insurance coverage. Over half of the uninsured populations are either small business owners or their employees. Let's not compound the problem by allowing a judicial free-for-all in frivolous lawsuits.
Please contact the following members of the House Judiciary by 12 p.m. on Wednesday, March 12, urging them to defeat SB 164.
- Rep. Terrance Carroll, 303-866-2909, bill sponsor
- Rep. Debbie Stafford, 303-866-2944
- Rep. Morgan Carroll, 303-866-2942
- Rep. Cheri Jahn, 303-866-5522
- Rep. Andy Kerr, 303-866-2923
- Rep. Claire Levy, 303-866-2578
- Rep. Rosemary Marshall, 303-866-2959
