With these words, Illinois state rep. Tom Holbrook, (D-Belleville) and several other democrats have joined with local downstate republicans to bring about legislation aimed at keeping doctors in the state. The exodus of doctors is extreme in downstate, the reality cannot be waved off as imaginary like the trial lawyers would have us do, pointing the blame everywhere but themselves and their lawsuits. The fact that local democratic state officials are willing to buck the state party boobahs to call for a cap on "pain and suffering" jury awards speaks volumns about how bad the crisis really is. Meanwhile, Governor Blagojevich has previously said he would not sign any legislation containing the cap clause and his spokesman gave no real promise he would do so this time.
"The governor will take a look at what they're talking about, but the Supreme Court has already ruled on the issue," Blagojevich spokesman Rebecca Rausch said.
Which means no. The Illinois Supreme Court is the court involved here. Other states have enacted the very same "cap" restrictions without incident and have had no exodus of doctors. So we shall see if the restrictions placed on legislation by our supreme court hold up. It seems unlikely given the success of these laws in most other states.
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