Just say Aye!
Elections came and went and every single one of the 22 propositions on the ballot were passed. It's a bit eerie, really.
I'm a bit bummed about Proposition 12. It's the one that allows the legislature to set limits on non-economic damages that can be awarded in a negligence lawsuit. Economic damages are the "loss of income" type--if I get disabled through to someone's negligence, I could receive quite a bit of money in economic damages (a grandma or a kid in the same situation would get bubcus since their earning power is nil). The non-economic damages are the "pain and suffering" kind, and are independent of one's earning power.
The whole thing was being sold as an emergency measure to keep our doctors in business. Supposedly all those frivolous lawsuits are driving up their liability insurance. Uh huh, right. It would not be the fairly small percentage of doctors that accounts for the vast majority of lawsuits, yet still are allowed to continue practicing and manage to get their insurance.
So now the non-economic damages which had already been capped by legislators are officially capped by a state amendment, and the legislature will be free to institute similar caps in other industries--I bet there is a lobbying feeding frenzy going right now.
The lobbying for and against prop-12 has been quite impressive. We've gotten all sorts of fliers in the mail, both pro and con. On one single day we received three big glossy ones. During the last few weeks, I'd been to my regular as well as eye doctors and both offices had pro-12 signs and cards that you could take home with you. Nothing like doing some politicking at the doctor's office.
I'd like to see a year from now how many doctors' insurance rated had gone down. I'd wager not many. And I'm not looking forward to the watering down of the consumer protection laws that is bound to happen. I am glad that voters in Travis County didn't fall for it--not that it did much good...
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I smell a rat. All of them passed? What gives? Who voted in this thing? I can't remember exactly, but I think I only voted for about 8 of the 22.
My father's a surgeon and my mother was lobbying heavily to pass prop 12. She even has a bumper sticker on her car. I've often wondered what possesses people to put election-related bumper stickers on their cars. It's only going to be relevant for a year at most. Anyway, I'll let you know in a year or so if my dad's rates went down. Of course, it took ten years for it to help in California and it's difficult to tell which of the many factors affecting the rates may actually cause them to go down, but you know if they do go down, all of the pro-12'ers will point to their glorious amendment.