Gov. Bob Taft is expected to soon sign a bill passed in December that would give medical workers who treat the poor immunity from medical malpractice lawsuits, except in cases of willful or wanton misconduct.
With the bill health care workers will now be protected from malpractice suits when they treat the poor in any setting. The bill is an expansion of the Good Samaritan Law that protects medical workers when they treat people at accident scenes or free clinics or shelters.
Client referral networks for the poor pushed the bill in hope of attracting doctors and specialists who are skittish about treating the uninsured, in large part because of skyrocketing costs for medical malpractice insurance.
Patients will be required to give written consent before treatment, though even proponents of the bill acknowledge they will have little choice if they want to be treated.