Financial reports from the Arkansas Secretary of State show three political action committees representing Arkansas’ nursing home industry have donates nearly $200,000 to candidates and political campaigns this year.
The Arkansas Health Care Association — which receives monthly dues from nursing homes in the state — is the state’s largest organization of long-term care providers. In the past, the organization has supported “tort reform” measures limiting the amount of money judges and juries can award in lawsuits when a person is injured or killed due to someone else’s negligence.
So far this year, the Arkansas Health Care Association’s three political action committees — AHA PAC, AHA Senate PAC, and AHA House PAC — have provided $199,057 to candidates and other political action committees in Arkansas.
Family Council has never opposed responsible lawsuit reforms, but we have written repeatedly about the unintended consequences of the kinds of measures the nursing home industry has promoted in Arkansas.
For example, in 2017 lawmakers proposed an amendment capping noneconomic and punitive damages in personal-injury lawsuits.
Under that proposal, noneconomic damages could have been capped at $500,000 for injury or death, and punitive damages would have been limited to three times the noneconomic damages. That may sound like a lot of money to some people, but it’s not much compensation for the loss of a human life.
The measure also let lawmakers restrict evidence that could be used in personal-injury lawsuits.
Similar measures have been proposed since then.
As we and others have said over the years, restricting lawsuits makes it difficult or impossible to hold bad actors accountable when they injure or kill an innocent person. Placing arbitrary limits on the amount of money judges and juries can award to victims of negligence effectively puts a price tag on human life. That is something we should never do.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
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