RALEIGH -- Gov. Bev Perdue on Friday vetoed a bill that would have made it harder to sue doctors working under emergency conditions in a hospital, and limited the amount of money that juries could have awarded to the most severely injured patients.
Also Friday, Perdue signed a bill making widespread changes to the state workers' compensation system, and a separate lawsuits bill that will allow juries to hear how much of a plaintiff's medical expenses have been paid by insurance.
Other bills Perdue signed on Friday protect prosecutors if police don't give them all the material they're supposed to in criminal cases, and help authorities track the purchase of cold and allergy medicine that contain a key ingredient in methamphetamine production. On Thursday and Friday, the governor signed 115 bills, allowed three to become law without her signature and vetoed two.
In a statement, Perdue called the workers' comp bill, HB709, and the Tort Reform for Citizens and Business bill, HB542, a match that will keep North Carolina "a business-friendly state" with protections for people who get injured balanced with a fair shake for companies.
But when it came to SB33, the main piece of Republican medical malpractice legislation this session, Perdue said the goal of keeping malpractice insurance rates low was important, but the bill was "unbalanced." She called on the General Assembly to try for a better version when it convenes in July.
"Once the bill is revised to adequately protect those that are catastrophically injured, I will proudly sign it into law," she said.
The malpractice veto was Perdue's ninth veto in a historically contentious session with the new Republican majority running the General Assembly. Earlier Friday, state House Speaker Thom Tillis said that when the House reconvenes for a week in July it will try to override Perdue's veto on Thursday of a bill requiring photo identification to vote.
Winning that battle is not a sure thing: The Senate has enough Republicans to muster the three-fifths majority for an override. But the House either needs some Democrats to defect, or to spring a surprise vote on a day when enough Democratic representatives don't show up for work - a threat Tillis has held over the minority members since the failed override of the challenge to the federal health reform law in March.
The voter ID bill passed in the House with 67 votes, five short of veto-proof. Five conservative Democrats did align with Republicans to successfully override the governor's budget veto earlier this month, but it remains to be seen whether they will switch sides on this issue.
"Gov. Perdue has chosen to veto a bill that over 75 percent of North Carolinians support and more than a dozen other states utilize," Tillis said in a statement. "Gov. Perdue continues to play politics and she has once again turned her back on the voters of our state."
A highly controversial bill is still on the governor's desk facing a Monday deadline: requiring that women seeking abortions wait 24 hours and be shown an ultrasound of their fetus. If Perdue vetoes that bill, an override vote would be extremely close. The House was one vote short of veto-proof when it approved the bill, with the five renegade Democrats split on the vote.
Likewise, an override of the medical malpractice bill is not guaranteed. The House approved it 62-44.
The two medical lawsuits bills - one vetoed, one signed - was a wash for doctors and hospitals on the one hand, and injured patients and their attorneys on the other.
'Patients over politics'
In a joint statement, the N.C. Medical Society and the N.C. Hospital Association expressed disappointment with the veto, saying they have worked for years for changes to the medical liability civil court system. They called for a legislative override.
"Sadly, this veto is a step backward at a time when we need to keep pace," said Bill Pully, president of the hospital association, referring to the competition to attract and retain physicians.
Dick Taylor, president of N.C. Advocates for Justice, the group representing trial attorneys, said SB33 "denies justice to injured persons. We applaud the governor for vetoing this bill." Taylor said the group was disappointed that HB542 wasn't also vetoed.
Laurie Sanders of N.C. Coalition for Patient Safety said, "I am happy that Gov. Perdue has placed patients over politics."
The medical malpractice bill went through many changes as it traveled through the General Assembly. The compromise that had the most support would have given doctors in emergency rooms elevated protection from liability. But a last-minute version in a Republican-controlled conference committee expanded that protection to cover any medical emergency anywhere in a hospital, except in cases involving pregnancy.
And while the House had agreed to exempt the most-severely injured patients - those suffering death, brain damage, loss of limbs - from any limit to the amount of money they can collect at trial for noneconomic damages, the Senate imposed a $500,000 cap that, in practical effect, applies to every patient.
Plaintiffs can still sue for punitive damages, and for economic damages. But a companion bill the governor signed Friday, HB542, requires juries be told how much of a patient's expenses are covered by insurance. Supporters say that gives juries a true sense of how much someone owes, but opponents say patients sometimes have to repay their insurance companies for that difference. Opponents also say it penalizes those who have insurance, and rewards those who don't.
The worker com bill makes sweeping changes in the laws that affect North Carolina workers injured on the job, and was widely touted as a rare example of bipartisanship this session. Among other things, it caps payments for most disabled workers at 500 weeks, extends temporary partial disability payments to 500 weeks, and increases survivors' death benefits to 500 weeks and burial benefits to $10,000.
