Cox’s Newport Office Is Scene of Protest : Legislation: Twenty people with a bucket of manure demonstrated against malpractice legislation sponsored by the congressman.

Armed with signs, personal stories and a bucket of manure, about 20 people turned out at Rep. Christopher Cox’s district office to protest the passage of a bill that seeks to limit awards for pain and suffering in medical malpractice lawsuits.

Cox (R-Newport Beach) sponsored HR 1075, which would establish a $250,000 cap for pain and suffering. The cap, which has existed in California since 1975 and has been adopted by 21 other states, is credited by the health care and insurance industries for keeping down the costs of medical malpractice insurance, according to Cox’s office.

Jaime Court, director of Consumers for Quality Care, a Los Angeles-based consumer group, said the bill will hurt patients by reducing their ability to seek compensation in medical malpractice cases. He presented a pail of manure to staff members at Cox’s office, saying it represents what Cox is giving the country in his bill.

“If companies that do damage do not pay stiff penalties and compensate their victims adequately, they won’t stop,” Court said. “These things are bull and he should be exposed for it.”

The bill passed the House last week on a 247-171 vote but has not yet been voted on by the Senate.

Cox could not be reached for comment, but his office issued a statement saying that California’s limits on pain and suffering awards have reduced health care costs and increased access to health care for the poor. The bill simply extends those benefits to the rest of the nation, Cox’s statement said.

“It limits the so-called ‘emotional distress’ awards to one-quarter million dollars on top of the unlimited actual and punitive damages, in order to take arbitrariness and unpredictability out of health insurance,” the statement said. “This reduces costs for everyone.”

Court said that Cox has received $160,000 in campaign contributions from health care and insurance interests over the years. Records on file with the Federal Election Commission show that Cox has received nearly $100,000 from health care and insurance political action committees over the past eight years, including $26,450 from the American Medical Assn. PAC, and $11,750 from the Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Co. PAC.

About 10 of the protesters told of problems they had with the 1975 California legislation, called the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act, and how it kept them from receiving much of the money awarded to them by juries in their medical malpractice cases.

Juries are not allowed to be told about the cap, Court said.

Kathy Olsen, 38, of San Diego, said that her son, Steven, was permanently brain damaged in 1992 after doctors misdiagnosed a cerebral abscess he received after falling out of a tree. Steven was 2 at the time of the accident.

A jury awarded the Olsens $7 million for “past and future general damages for his pain and suffering,” but that award was reduced to $250,000 because of the cap, Olsen said.

“Representative Cox says there’s no reason for damages to be over $250,000,” Olsen said. “Let him trade places with Steven.”

But the cap has kept California’s cost of malpractice insurance down to 50% of what it is in states like Florida and New York, said Dr. Brennan Cassidy, a member of the Orange County Medical Assn. board of directors.

“For health care in general, I think this would be an overall benefit, not a detriment,” said Cassidy, who attended the protest to hear what protesters had to say. “The important thing is that actual damages remain unlimited.”