About 3,000 Illinois health care professionals, including several Illinois AFP leaders, rallied May 13 in Chicago's Daley Plaza to ask the public to support federal tort reform. The Chicago Medical Society organized the rally.
"I am glad that family physicians and our medical colleagues could come together on the same issue," Ellen Brull, M.D., of Niles, Ill., the Illinois AFP first vice president, said after attending the rally.
 Signs such as this one drive the crowd's message home. |
 A crowd of nearly 3,000 Illinois health care professionals express support for federal tort reform at a Chicago rally. |
The protesters argued that malpractice reform was essential to the survival of many medical practices. They also said they wanted to raise awareness of the impact of the medical liability crisis on patients' access to medical services.
"If liability reform does not occur, I will have to turn away some patients," said FP Frederic Ettner, M.D., of Evanston, Ill., after participating in the rally. "It costs more for me to see them than I am currently being paid. My liability premiums have increased 45 percent in the last two years, and I am in solo practice."
Without meaningful tort reform, there will be fewer physicians in Illinois, where rising insurance premiums could drive many health care professionals to cut back on their practices.
"On every rotation I go through, from family practice to surgery, I hear about the medical malpractice crisis," said third-year medical student Todd Novak of Chicago. Reflecting on the event, he said, "I hope this rally wakes people up and gets people talking."
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