Your action is needed. The legislature has passed wrongful death liability expansion legislation for the third time during the 2024 session, and we need to urge Governor Hochul to again veto this bill. It is crucial that she hear directly from New York’s physicians about your already high insurance expenses, challenges recruiting and retaining physicians, and patients’ difficulties accessing care that would all be exacerbated by this bill. The Governor has vetoed previous versions of this legislation and must be reminded of the dramatic effects expanding damages awardable in wrongful death actions would have on physicians, patients, and New York’s healthcare system as a whole.

Please take action using the sample email provided to ask the Governor to veto this legislation. We encourage you to personalize your message on why this is important to you.

To sign and send the message below, click here or copy and paste the message into an e-mail to legislative.secretary@exec.ny.gov

Subject: Please Protect Healthcare Access in New York – Veto S.8485B/A.9232B

Dear Governor Hochul,

As a constituent and emergency physician, I am writing to urge you to veto S.8485B (Hoylman-Sigal)/ A.9232B (Weinstein) that would dangerously increase the amount of recoverable damages in wrongful death cases and subsequently increase the cost of medical liability insurance protection for New York physicians by an estimated 40%.

Physicians and hospitals simply cannot absorb these kinds of cost increases. Additionally, the struggle to recruit and retain health care professionals is especially severe emergency physicians. S.8485B/ A.9232B contains no substantial changes to the version you vetoed last year and will only exacerbate this situation.

New York already has the highest liability premiums and payouts in the US. A recent report showed that in 2022, New York once again had the highest cumulative medical liability payouts of any state in the country, 36% more than the state with the second highest amount (Florida). New York also had the highest per capita liability payment, 20% more than the second highest state, New Jersey. It is no wonder that WalletHub recently listed New York as one of the worst states in the country in which to be a doctor largely due to overwhelming liability exposure compared to other states.

For the health and welfare of my patients and all New Yorkers, I respectfully ask that you veto S.8485B/ A.9232B. It is irresponsible to consider legislation that would significantly increase costs for health care professionals and hospitals further deepening patient access gaps and health disparities. I appreciate your recognition of these realities and your vetoing similar proposals in the last two years. The potential for significant unintended consequences remains with this bill and I urge you to prioritize protecting patient access to care by taking the same action to veto this legislation again this year. Thank you.

Sincerely,