SENATE MEMORIAL 27

50th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2012

INTRODUCED BY

Lisa Curtis

A MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THE LEGISLATIVE HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE TO STUDY THE TORT CLAIMS ACT LIFETIME MEDICAL CAP AND TO CONSIDER WAYS IN WHICH THE STATE OR ITS POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS MAY OBTAIN ADDITIONAL COVERAGE FOR THE EXPENSES OF PROVIDING MEDICAL CARE FOR CHILDREN CATASTROPHICALLY INJURED BY PUBLIC EMPLOYEES.

     WHEREAS, New Mexican children have been catastrophically injured by the negligence of public employees; and

     WHEREAS, the Tort Claims Act limits the amount of lifetime medical expenses caused by that negligence to three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000), which cap on past and future medical expenses was enacted over twenty years ago, in 1991; and

     WHEREAS, according to the Kaiser foundation, from 1990 to 2007, national health expenditures per capita increased two hundred sixty-four percent; and

     WHEREAS, lifetime medical expenses for a child who is catastrophically injured through the negligence of a public employee quickly exceed the three-hundred-thousand-dollar ($300,000) Tort Claims Act cap; and

     WHEREAS, many catastrophically injured children are dependent on special technology, equipment, supplies and nursing care to survive each day; and

     WHEREAS, many catastrophically injured children are periodically hospitalized; and

     WHEREAS, medicaid is ill-equipped to provide the care necessary for a catastrophically injured child; and

     WHEREAS, the cap removes any financial incentive for a public hospital that injures a child to be responsible for the consequences of its negligence, as the hospital is paid more to care for the damage it has caused the child than the monetary limitation under the cap; and

     WHEREAS, at least one parent of a catastrophically injured child commonly must serve as primary caregiver because medically related services are either unavailable or prohibitively expensive, thus setting up an untenable situation and further stressing the physical, emotional and financial well-being of the family; and

     WHEREAS, the family suffers not only the injury and damage of the child being catastrophically injured, but also the inability to support itself;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the legislative health and human services committee be requested to study this vital public policy question of the moral and financial obligations that a public employer has to children catastrophically injured through the negligence of public employees; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the committee consider the dire effects of the medical-expenses cap on an injured child and the child's family; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the committee study the need to increase the cap or to provide coverage through other avenues, such as insurance or reinsurance, and that the study include the availability and costs of purchasing insurance or self-insuring sufficiently to pay for the actual costs of the lifetime medical care necessary to properly care for children catastrophically injured through the negligence of public employees; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the chairperson and staff of the legislative health and human services committee.

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