NY Daily News: No new liability

By: Tom Stebbins

Albany: Charlene Obernauer’s Labor Day column (“What grieving families deserve this Labor Day,” op-ed, Sept. 5) leaves out crucial facts and data. There’s a reason doctors and hospitals, local governments and small businesses are calling on Gov. Hochul to veto a bill that radically increases the amount of money recoverable in wrongful death lawsuits: It will hike insurance costs across the board. New York’s medical professionals already pay more for insurance than almost anywhere else in the country. If signed into law, the bill will send those costs soaring by 40%. Personal auto insurance and small business general liability insurance will rise, too. Inflated insurance costs will drain municipal budgets, increase household expenses as we battle record inflation and devastate New York’s already strained health care system, disproportionately harming the medical professionals and safety-net hospitals that serve our communities.

Tom Stebbins, executive director, Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York