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Harming Patient Access to Care: The Impact of Excessive Litigation
Subcommittee on Health
Mr. Sam Roberts M.D.
Thank
you, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Brown and members of the Health Subcommittee.
My name is Dr. Sam Roberts. I
am a family physician from Elkins, WV, here today on behalf of the American
Academy of Family Physicians and the National Medical Liability Reform
Coalition. I
am here because I am concerned that the medical liability crisis threatens my
patients' ability to get the health care they need.
I am the second generation to serve as the local physician in Elkins.
My father was the local physician in Elkins before me.
Between the two of us, we have delivered 9,000 babies in a town of
10,000. I
have never been sued in twenty-five years of practice, but I cannot afford the
insurance to continue delivering babies.
This year I will have to stop, leaving the seven counties around me with
no family physician delivering prenatal or maternity care.
This will mean my pregnant patients will have to drive four to six hours
for their prenatal care and delivery.
This is a hard decision both for both my patients and me.
But the litigation environment in West Virginia has driven up premiums so
that I cannot afford the insurance. I
am also concerned that West Virginia is facing a larger health care crisis.
My daughter, Leah Roberts, is sitting behind me today.
She is in her first year of medical school at West Virginia University
Medical School.
Her incoming class was surveyed at the beginning of the year and over
ninety percent expected to stay in West Virginia to practice medicine.
At the end of this year, they were surveyed again. Over two thirds of the
class now expects to leave the state for states that are not experiencing a
litigation crisis.
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