Washington's Republican senators will tell you in the coming election campaign that they tried to limit medical malpractice awards -- but they did no such thing. What they tried, with great success, was to preserve the issue for another campaign season.
Yes, the GOP-controlled Senate voted 27-22 Tuesday to approve legislation restricting court awards for so-called pain and suffering to $350,000. And yes, the measure will go to the Democratic-controlled House, where it will die. But in truth, it makes no difference whether it lives or dies.
That's because the Washington Supreme Court has already declared such restrictions unconstitutional. The ruling means the state must amend its constitution in order to do what the Senate purported to do Tuesday. That's not so easy, though. Amendments require approval by two-thirds majorities in each chamber, and by a majority of voters at the polls.
The Senate's Republican leaders know that. And they know they can't get such a majority, even in their own chamber. So they issued legislation that offers physicians who think jury awards are driving up their insurance costs nothing other than an opportunity to steam and vote against Democrats.
"I think this is a reasonable approach," sponsoring Sen. Dale Brandland, R-Bellingham, told his colleagues before they sent the bill to the House. But what is reasonable about staging a charade that accomplishes nothing?
A reasonable approach would be sitting down with other legislators -- yes, including Democratic ones -- and seeing what moves they can agree on to help hold down insurance rates. That would force them to confront the fact that passing limits alone does not do that. States that have limited pain-and-suffering awards, like Idaho, have seen malpractice insurance rates continue to rise, often faster than in states without limits.
As proponents of limits like to point out, rates have risen more slowly in California, which did impose such caps. But rates started doing that only after a citizen initiative gave the state's insurance commissioner the authority to regulate rate increases.
If Brandland and his fellow Republicans dropped the empty posturing, they might find there are things they can do to help doctors deal with rising rates. What they demonstrated Tuesday is that they would rather have an issue than a solution. -- J.F.