toledoblade.com --

COLUMBUS - Republican Gov. Bob Taft yesterday told physicians rallying outside the Statehouse that gaining control of the Ohio Supreme Court is the key to halting a sharp increase in malpractice insurance premiums.

"We need an Ohio Supreme Court that will fairly and impartially interpret the law," Mr. Taft said to loud applause, asking the crowd of 2,000 to help re-elect Justice Evelyn Stratton and elect Lt. Gov. Maureen O'Con|nor, both Republicans who backers say would forge a 4-3 majority in favor of "tort reform."

Carrying a sign with the message, "If doctors can't get insurance, patients don't get care," 53-year-old Dr. Robert Arrom applauded the governor's speech.

An obstetrician-gynecologist in Fairfield, Dr. Arrom said he knows a physician who has moved into hospital administration because of the sharp increase in medical malpractice insurance rates, and physicians who have not moved to Ohio because of the problem.

Mr. Taft said several factors are driving the higher insurance premiums, but he said the state Department of Insurance told him that the "primary culprit" is the "rising cost of investigating, defending, and settling medical malpractice claims."

The governor is backing a "tort reform" bill that would limit compensation for pain and suffering and other noneconomic damages to $300,000.

But Don Iler, a Cleveland attorney who specializes in personal injury and libel law, said there's no link between jury verdicts and increased insurance premiums. He said Mr. Taft should order the state Department of Insurance to force insurance companies to prove a link between rising premiums and jury verdicts.

Six days before the Nov. 5 election, Mr. Taft started his day by calling a drive-time radio show in Akron, taping a "free time" statement that a Youngstown TV station will air, and doing an interview with the CBS TV station in Columbus.

After the rally, organized by the Ohio State Medical Association, Mr. Taft headed for the Columbus airport to take a chartered flight to Zanesville. The governor's re-election campaign picked up the tab because of an afternoon campaign stop in Cincinnati.

His hands clasped, Mr. Taft closed his eyes as the seven-seat plane descended through wisps of clouds as the red and yellow autumn leaves came into view.

The aroma of a nearby Wendy's hamburger bun bakery greeted Mr. Taft and his aides as they got out of the plane for the drive to the Maysville Local School District's new middle-high school, set to open this fall.

With $32 million from the state and $4.8 million from local taxpayers, the district has a new elementary school to replace two that were a century old and a new school for grades 6 to 12 with science labs and an ornate rotunda as its entrance.

Shirley Smith, who was on the Maysville school board for 24 years, said the project would not have happened without the lawsuit, DeRolph vs. Ohio, that southeast Ohio schools filed in 1991 to challenge state's school-funding system.

In a 4-3 ruling released six years later, the state Supreme Court struck down the system as unconstitutional. Among the elements that the justices said must be corrected was the legislature's failure to put enough money into the budget for construction and maintenance of school buildings.

Mr. Taft said the new school buildings in South Zanesville were part of his 12-year, $10 billion, school-construction program, which taps heavily into Ohio's share of the national tobacco lawsuit settlement.

On the short flight to Cincinnati, Mr. Taft signed a stack of "thank you" letters to campaign contributors.

Permanent Link