HB 1153 Tabled: Lange, Verchio Protect Property Rights

Last week I asked whether the Republicans sponsoring HB 1153 were taking their party platform seriously. HB 1153 removes barriers to eminent domain, making it easier for railroad companies to take your land. Weakening property rights doesn't seem to fit with plank 11 of the SDGOP's 2008 platform.

Maybe my neighbor Gerry Lange helped remind his colleagues of their principles. Rep. Lange joined some conscience-stricken Republicans in tabling HB 1153 this morning. Helping Gerry block this bill on a 7–5 vote were some Republicans I've taken a poke or two at on this blog, including Rep. Mike Verchio from Hill City.

But don't count a bill out until you hear the magic words "41st day."

HB 1087: Counties Get Unlimited Fine/Sentence Power... and Ex Post Facto Laws?

Now that the Democrats are no longer in charge in Washington, maybe the Glenn Beck club can turn their attention back to state politics, where the real battle against big government is.

Of interest: HB 1087, more questionable legislation from Rep. Mike Verchio and his West River colleagues (all GOP except for Sen. Maher). If I'm reading this bill right, HB 1087 expands the power of county governments in two remarkable ways:

1. HB 1087 eliminates the current maximum fine ($500) and jail time (30 days) counties can impose for violations of their ordinances. This amendment sets no new maximum.
2. HB 1087 allows "retrospective application" of county ordinances if non-municipal county residents face an "imminent threat" to health and/or safety. In other words, ex post facto laws: the county can change the law and come arrest you for doing something that was perfectly legal when you did it.

Now I don't imagine Lake County is going to start imposing life sentences for violating building permits. But there may be some naughty behavior on which counties need to be able to turn some tighter screws.

But I'm at a loss for coming up with a jutification for granting counties ex post facto power. The closest I can come: suppose Hyperion builds its refinery, and then the county commissioners see it really does turn the county into a barren, smog-ridden hell. They pass new refinery siting regulations, retroactively revoke Hyperion's permit, charge them a billion dollars to reinstate... but no. I can't justify busting anyone, not even the corporate raiders at Hyperion, for committing an act that was perfectly legal when they committed it.

Sponsors Verchio, Schmidt, and Kopp have been known to run with the "Citizens for Liberty" crowd. CFL is all about limited government. HB 1087 removes limits on government. What do Verchio et al. stand for?

HB 1068: Cap Medical Malpractice Awards at $100K

Rep. Mike Verchio (R-30/Custer) is putting medical malpractice and tort reform on the Legislature's agenda. Verchio's House Bill 1068 would reduce South Dakota's cap on total general damages for injury or death from medical malpractice from $500,000 to $100,000.

$100,000: that's less than half the average annual salary for doctors in South Dakota... or perhaps the price of Dr. R. Blake Curd's garage.

Before reducing the cost of failure for doctors, Rep. Verchio and his colleagues might want to consider the following:

• Medical malpractice makes up 1.5% to 2% of U.S. health spending.
• Texas caps medical malpractice damages at $250K, yet McAllen, Texas, has one of the highest per capita health care spending rates in the country.
• Most malpractice lawsuits have merit:
  
  

  Eighty percent of malpractice claims involve significant disability or death, a 2006 analysis of medical malpractice claims conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health shows, and the amount of compensation patients receive strongly depends on the merits of their claims. Most people injured by medical malpractice do not bring legal claims, earlier studies by the same researchers have found [Tom Baker, "Liability = Responsibility," New York Times, 2009.07.11].

  
  
• In South Dakota, the average time between a malpractice "incident" and a patient receiving payment was 3.26 years (in 2006... and that's the fastest average time in the nation). Three years is a long time to rack up lawyer bills. $100,000 might not cover that, and folks who really have been harmed by medical mistakes might not be able to get a lawyer to help them.
• From 1990 to 2006, South Dakota reported fewer than 400 medical malpractice payments against doctors. That's 25 a year.
• In 2006, the median malpractice payment to patients in South Dakota was $75,000, the third lowest in the country, tied with California. A few whoppers must have skewed our mean payment all the way up to $422,000... but these numbers still suggest that more than half of the patients receiving awards don't even reach HB 1068's proposed low cap, let alone the current cap of $500K.
• 75.4% of South Dakota hospitals registered with the National Practitioner Data Bank have never reported a malpractice payment.

These statistics don't make a slam-dunk case against HB 1068. Still, I get the impression Rep. Verchio is trying to solve a problem that just isn't that big in South Dakota. I can more easily see how capping damages at $100,000 would fail to make a big dent in health care costs and only make it harder for patients to hold hospitals accountable and get justice when harmed.