The future of nearly 1,500 Community Health Centers is on the line this November. More than 1-in-5 Californians get their health care at Community Health Centers across the state, including the unhoused, undocumented immigrants, the uninsured, and veterans. Many of those health centers are already operating on razor-thin margins. The added cost as a result of this initiative would force these health centers to reduce services, cut staff, and in some cases, close their doors altogether.
This initiative would obliterate existing safeguards for out-of-control medical lawsuits and result in skyrocketing health care costs and bigger payouts for attorneys. Beyond changing existing legal protections, the initiative would create a new, broadly defined category of lawsuit that would have a devastating effect on our health care delivery system. The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office has said, “This measure would increase “annual government costs likely ranging from the low tens of millions of dollars to the high hundreds of millions of dollars.”
This initiative was written by lawyers who stand to financially benefit from higher fees should it pass. Further, the measure prohibits judges from independently verifying the truthfulness of statements made by trial attorneys in certain court filings. It allows lawyers to be paid in a lump sum, meaning they can collect more in legal fees at the expense of patients. And it removes caps on attorneys’ fees for cases filed under its new category of lawsuit, meaning lawyers would earn more of a patient’s payout.
