Caps Gone Wild: Nursing home and liability insurance

During the tort reform fight, nursing home operators, their lobbyists and the insurance industry begged for damage caps based primarily on the notion that it would enable them to afford liability insurance and give them a ceiling and a floor on damages. It also protected them from "jackpot justice" and irresponsible juries.
But it appears now that a number of nursing homes aren't carrying sufficient liability insurance even to compensate vulnerable elderly victims or their families up to the $500,000 damage cap. Their strategy is to be underinsured and if the verdict is too large, take bancruptcy.

The House passed House Bill 536 with Republican support. But it's being killed in the state Senate. Why? Because the nursing home operators, their lobbyists and the insurance industry — some of which supplies some nursing homes with so-called "eroding" policies that really screw nursing home abuse victims by taking the nursing home's legal fees out of the available liability insurance — are leading the Senate leadership around like obedient lap dogs.
Will Sen. Buck Clarke pocket veto the bill? We'll see.


Sid Salter Blog
2/26/10