In: Nursing
Damage caps- When a person Sue someone , then usually money damages are given as a compensation for injury that is the economic damages in which a specific costs are given for injury treatment like medical bills. But in non - economic damages the person can claim for other types of damages like emotional distress ,pain , suffering etc. Damage caps are laws that limit the amount of non - economic damages , that are awarded for a case.
According to me, There should be caps in unlimited non - economic damages ,as if there are no caps then it will have a negative impact on health care facilities like costs ,access and quality.
Reasons for limiting the cap for maximum amount that jury awards.
Costs - The unlimited caps may increase malpractices insurance premium for some medical specialists . Although , physician are now practising defensive medicine due to the threat of malpractices litigation. Unlimited damage caps can even threat prospects of early settlements of malpractices cases , and the plaintiff will hold the case longer for larger award.
Access - The unlimited damages caps may lead to shortage of physician , specialist in several high risk specialist ..Also many hospitals , find it difficult to get on call physicians for their emergency departments.
Quality - Unlimited damage caps may affect in quality of health care as , the fear of large award is a deterrent to unsafe care.
According to me ,there should be balance between the competing interest of patients , and the physician , nurses etc.who treat them.