I recently received an email from state Rep. Kevin Peterson. It was a survey about a bill coming up for a vote soon.
I totally oppose Assembly Bill 147, which limits patients’ rights to use evidence in court against inept or bumbling medical personnel and their corporate establishments.
I have read AB 147 and found it to be against the interests of Wisconsin citizens’ rights. Below is a portion of the bill I did some research on. I have indicated the wording of this bill that I find unacceptable:
“A statement, gesture, or the conduct of a health care provider or a health care provider’s employee or agent, that expresses apology, benevolence, compassion, condolence, fault, liability, remorse, responsibility, or sympathy to a patient or to his or her relative or representative is not admissible into evidence or subject to discovery in any civil action or administrative hearing regarding the health care provider as evidence of liability or as an admission against interest.”
Am I to believe that if some surgeon apologizes for leaving a scalpel sewed up inside of me that I can’t use that statement in a court of law? If I recall correctly, I believe that just a few years ago a law was enacted, on behalf of the medical corporations, that accidently injured patients (or their surviving family members) were limited to a maximum of $250,000 in just compensation.
I had to write Peterson in protest of the bill. I usually support his work on behalf of the citizens in the district that elected him. However, I did not find his explanation of this bill as being totally open with its scope. His inability to recognize the importance of these four critical words in this bill would incline me to think that he is beginning to crawl into the pockets of some special interest groups and disseminate misleading information to his constituents.
I firmly believe that the voters of the 40th Assembly District, including myself, did not send him to office to enact more bad legislation. I think we all would prefer if he worked at eliminating the innumerable bad laws, which already clog our state statutes, and take some better efforts at focusing on the average citizens welfare.