GOVERNOR'S VETO

Pursuant to Article V, Section 6, of the Constitution of Virginia, I veto House Bill 1459, which would increase the cap on recovery in actions against health care providers for medical malpractice.

Virginia currently has a climate that has effectively stabilized malpractice premiums, and attracted health care service providers to the Commonwealth.  Virginia's $2 million cap is the highest all-encompassing cap in the nation, and was last raised in 2008.  Raising the cap for medical malpractice judgments to $3 million over the next twenty years, without further reforms in the medical malpractice litigation system, will not meaningfully protect against health care cost increases.  Federal health reform law mandates, currently in litigation, will cost Virginia an estimated $2 billion over the next 10 years, and is creating great uncertainty in the health care system.  Thus, adding to system costs at this time without other offsets should not occur.  While I commend the affected stakeholders for working diligently together, increasing the medical malpractice cap will ultimately lead towards higher health care costs for doctors, hospitals, businesses, and most importantly, patients.

Accordingly, I veto this bill.