Medical malpractice victims dispute blame claims.
A young widow and her children represented Illinois residents who have been injured or had family members who died because of medical malpractice at a press conference Thursday calling attention to a new patients network, Patients for Justice.
Dana Askew of St. Jacob said she lost her husband, David, as the result of medical errors in 2003 and she is greatly troubled that insurance companies and some legislators would blame her and her family for high malpractice insurance costs.
Askew is joining others in Patients for Justice to tell their stories which they do not consider frivolous.
Mark Fraley, a field organizer for the Center for Justice and Democracy, said Patients for Justice was set up to counter the insurance industry's well-funded campaign to convince legislators that medical malpractice lawsuits are responsible for driving up the cost of medical malpractice insurance.
"We believe that the rising cost of medical malpractice insurance is a problem in the state of Illinois and that something needs to be done about it," Fraley said. But, he said his group is asking the Illinois State Medical Insurance Exchange (ISMIE) to stop blaming the victims of malpractice for the premium increases and to open its books to justify the excessive rates that doctors must pay for insurance.
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