Gov. Ron DeSantis says he'll veto a controversial bill that would allow more family members to pursue medical malpractice lawsuits over the deaths of their parents and adult children.
Currently, parents can't pursue non-economic damages in malpractice cases involving the deaths of their children if those children are 25 or older. And the same applies to adult children in malpractice cases involving their parents—meaning they can't sue for intangible losses from a trauma like pain and suffering.
"What I suggested that was done -- and I know there was some support of it in the Senate -- is that if you had caps on the amount of damages people could seek, that would dis-incentivize a lot of jackpot justice," DeSantis said. "And so if you had situations — you already can do economic damages — then you would be able to do non-economic, but you would not be able to kind of hit the lottery…"
The governor says the bill, which would repeal a 1990 law, would cause lawsuits to skyrocket.
"What they want to do is to sue for non-economic damages," he said. "What that is going to do is, is that's going to lead to a flood of lawsuits against practitioners and against hospitals. Malpractice premiums are going to go up. It's going to be harder to recruit physicians into Florida, and ultimately health-care costs will go up."
He has until May 30th to act on the measure.
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