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Bucks County Medical Society GRAND VIEW HOSPITAL 700 LAWN AVENUE P.O. BOX 902 SELLER5VILLE. PA 18960 To Our Community: December 31, 2002 The plan announced on Monday by Governor-elect Rendell, if enacted by the Pennsylvania Legislature, will hopefully make it possible for physicians to secure professional liability coverage at a more affordable cost. If this is so, we hope that most area physicians will be able to afford to continue to practice in our communities for another year. We applaud and thank Governor-elect Rendell for his leadership in working to avert the public health catastrophe that would otherwise have occurred on January 1st! Regrettably, a "long term fix" for Pennsylvania's worsening liability insurance crisis continues to elude us. Pennsylvania still needs to eliminate the system of "jackpot justice" that has caused professional liability insurance costs to skyrocket. It remains essential that a permanent solution to this problem be developed and implemented in 2003. Without a permanent solution, the crisis that was just so narrowly averted will become fact a year from now. This liability crisis has had a terribly negative impact on our community. Liability insurance coverage is required by law in order for physicians and hospitals to be licensed in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Because of the extremely high cost of the required coverage, physicians have been forced to consider relocating their practices and families to other States. In most other States the cost of liability insurance is only a fraction of what must be paid in our region. Some senior physicians have found it impossible to afford to keep their practices open, and are being forced into early retirement. Because hospitals are forced to pay such high premiums, they must redirect funds away from much needed services in order to pay high liability insurance costs. The readily accessible system of quality healthcare services that has taken decades to build, and that our community now takes for granted, is crumbling before our eyes. This is a situation that we, as providers of healthcare services, find frightening and abhorrent. We urge you to contact Governor-elect Rendell, as well as your local legislators. Please thank them for their efforts in support of resolving this problem. But also reinforce to them the need to devise and implement a permanent solution. Only our elected representatives have the power to prevent this impending public health catastrophe. Without the timely intervention of political leaders, your family's future access to healthcare services is in serious jeopardy. Remember -- the physicians who are asking for your support today may not be here to care for you and your family tomorrow. Thank you very much! Anthony Foderaro, MD President, Grand View Hospital Medical Staff Thomas J. Hipp, MD Chairman, Grand View Hospital Board of Trustees Stuart H. Fine Chief Executive Officer, Grand View Hospital Contact Information: Gov.- Elect Ed Rendell EdRendell@RendellforGovernor.com Phone: 215.545.4553 Fax: 215.545.1956 Contact your legislators by using the e-advocacy tool Capwiz http://www.capwiz.com/pamedsoc that helps you locate phone and fax numbers, e-mail addresses, and postal addresses of all local, state and federal elected officials, by simply entering your home zip code