The Governor’s Medical Liability Reform Bill (HB 306), which was a Chamber priority bill, was voted down in the House Judiciary Committee last week by a vote of 11-11.

The Chamber strongly supported this bill, which would provide meaningful tort reform for health care and helped to hold down runaway health insurance costs. This bill would have made several tort reforms for medical liability cases, including setting a limit of $500,000 on noneconomic damages, allowing evidence that a person will be compensated from a collateral source, adjusting economic damage awards for taxes, adjusting the computation of future medical expenses, and other changes.

The Maryland Chamber thanks the following lawmakers who voted in support of this legislation:
Don Dwyer, Jr.
Wm. Daniel Mayer
Susan K. McComas
Herbert H. McMillan
Kevin Kelly
Pauline H. Menes
Carol S. Petzold
Christopher B. Shank
Tanya Thornton Shewell
Theodore J. Sophocleus
Robert A. Zirkin

The following legislators voted against this bill:
Curtis S. (Curt) Anderson
Anthony G. Brown
Jill P. Carter
Kathleen M. Dumais
Ana Sol Gutierrez
Darryl A. Kelley
Susan C. Lee
Neil F. Quinter
Samuel I. Rosenberg
Luiz R. S. Simmons
Michael D. Smigiel, Sr.