JT: Trial lawyers and their allies are defining the terms of the debate over health care in Pennsylvania, and the voters of this state need someone to fight for them to protect their access to health care. The State Senate needs a physician’s point of view when it debates the future of health care access in the state.

JT: I have spent my entire career to this point as a doctor, caring for people, for families. I have to earn the trust of every patient I see, and I believe I can extend that same way of thinking into the State Senate. I want to guarantee that the same kind of care doctors show for their patients is part of the care that every person in the state can expect from the health care system. And of course, I would never take a voter’s trust for granted. I am not a career politician, and would work as hard for the people of the state as I would if they were patients in my office.

JT: We all lose from the spiraling cost of medical malpractice insurance. We’ll lose doctors practicing medicine. No doctors, no hospitals. No hospitals, no jobs. For every doctor that leaves the state, three people lose their jobs. As physicians retire early or simply leave, buildings lose tenants and the vacancy rates of vibrant downtowns and communities skyrocket. Small towns and suburbs that thrive on serving people in hospitals and medical centers lose small businesses. Community hospitals will be the first to feel this growing crisis. They are the economic engines of their communities, employing about eight to twelve hundred people each. If these people lose their jobs, their communities lose an important tax base. So, you see that stabilizing the costs for doctors will surely help all of us, just as failing to do so will surely put our entire state in economic peril.

JT: The first thing I will do in the State Senate is work to stabilize medical liability costs, and help keep the economies of our cities and communities running. I will introduce legislation to cap non-economic damages, which will help the private health care market return to Pennsylvania and, with it, the competitive prices such markets give us.

JT: The current system of private health care has lead to some problems for which only government must intervene. Most importantly, legislators must step in to control the spiraling costs of liability insurance and make doctors less vulnerable to lawsuits. In this country, questions of insurance, liability and delivery of medical care are very closely linked. Reforms to one part of our system will surely help all of it, so it is important to think of health care as not just questions of quality – which is surely high, thanks to doctors and allied professions – but also of access. Out of control lawsuits will limit access to health care by driving doctors from the state. So government intervention to correct this problem will surely increase the overall quality of health care by ensuring doctors stay here to deliver top-notch care.

JT: Physicians on a daily basis deal with difficult and complex problems involving patient health issues. If you add to this the extra governmental regulations that for the most part have no direct effect on patient access and quality health care, the task becomes insurmountable. There is the need for oversight, but how and why, and what benefits are to be obtained need to be further evaluated. This would be the area to follow after the medical liability and reimbursement issues are handled.

JT: Because of our malpractice crisis, young physicians are not coming to the state. In 1995, Pennsylvania ranked 12^th in the number of young physicians in the country. In 2000, we dropped to 41^st, even though we train more than a quarter of all physicians in the country.

JT: Working hard on stabilizing medical malpractice costs will in itself help to turn the tide. I would also work to draw physicians into our state through loan forgiveness programs; most doctors leave medical school with close to a quarter-million dollars in debt.

JT: Our present system falls short with each area. The ability to collect information on errors and medical liability cases is near impossible. This should be streamlined and collated. A governing board can share the information so trends and system errors can be acted upon in a thoughtful and logical manner. Access to health care is addressed with the ability to stabilize the medical liability market. Implementation of legislation to allow information sharing to address system errors and trends would be necessary to continue improving patient satisfaction and quality of the health care.

JT: When it comes to people working in similar jobs, no one would ever question their right to have some power in influencing their own wages, either through the free market or through collective might. And yet, when it comes to doctors – for whom work is at times an all-consuming labor of love, care and immense risk, legislators and pundits seem to balk at our need to control our own compensation. The health care market is controlled by very few companies. This has made it difficult for physicians to control their own wages, and has especially hurt private practitioners. Physicians need to be able to bargain collectively. Physicians need to get payments directly from the companies whether they are in network or not.

JT: I know the political process, and will take my election as a mandate for passing my proposals. It will take mobilizing doctors from all over the state, however, and with a united front we can transform our system from its current nightmare to one that serves all doctors and patients. It’s going to be a tough fight. The cap bill introduced by the House of Representatives was just defeated. And yet, a bill was finally passed. The difficulties in getting such legislation through shows the strength of the interest groups opposed to such reforms. It will take vigilance and coalition building in and out of the Senate to make reform a permanent part of the engine of government.

JT: The current holder of this Senate seat is a powerful member of the Senate and a staunch opponent of caps. My election will add a vocal voice for reform, while at the same time remove a large obstacle for change. At the same time, it moves the needs of doctors from the outside to the inside, and I will work hard to make the voices and needs of physicians heard and felt. Change happens when one profession links its needs to the general needs of all people. By getting involved in politics, doctors can take their case to the people and show them that the urgent work of reforming liability issues is crucial for the welfare of the entire Commonwealth. When we start adding our profession to the ranks of legislators, we will begin to make a difference. We can no longer let others fight our battles. Physicians need to actively involve themselves in election campaigns and show a united front to protect health care for patients. We have to work hard, either through our volunteer efforts or financial support, for candidates who support issues vital to our profession. Our opponents have done this for years, and we put our entire health care system at peril if we don’t fight them on their own turf.