Consumer Watchdog President Jamie Court comments on insurance rates being raised for vape users. " I'm no fan of the insurance industry but I think they're probably right in this circumstance," Court says in reference to the long term health effects.

During a routine hysterectomy, Annette’s surgeon unknowingly sliced her bowel. Diligent post-operative care would have revealed this problem, but for over 36 hours medical providers failed to report her abnormal vital signs. An infection spread throughout her body, causing her to go into septic shock. Failure to diagnose her condition led to the amputation of her arms and legs.

Almost 45 years ago, in 1975, politicians set a cap on the damages that patients like Annette could receive for all she had lost due to medical negligence - her ability to walk, work, move freely and be with her family as she once was – at $250,000. That limit for loss of a patient’s quality of life still stands today - exactly as it was written back then. It has never been adjusted – not even for inflation. At first Annette's family couldn’t believe it was true, but then they realized that the maximum amount their family could recover for the entire ordeal was determined by politicians four and a half decades ago. 

The Fairness for Injured Patients Act (FIPA), a proposed ballot measure for the November 2020 ballot, would adjust the 45-year old cap and create exceptions in the case of catastrophic injuries like Annette's.

When he was two years old, Steven fell in the woods. He was rushed to the hospital, where penny-pinching medical providers ignored his parents pleas for diagnostic tests and sent him away. His parents, knowing something was wrong, asked repeatedly for a CAT scan but it was denied. Steven returned comatose. The providers who denied his CAT scan had failed to detect a growing brain abscess that left him blind and brain damaged.

A jury awarded Steven $7 million to compensate for him for his lifetime of blindness and disability. However, a compensation cap set in 1975 by California politicians and never adjusted forced the judge to reduce verdict for all that he had lost for his quality of life to $250,000. Both of Steven’s parents have had to quit their jobs to care for him full-time.

The Fairness for Injured Patients Act (FIPA), a proposed ballot measure for the November 2020 California ballot, would update the 45 year-old compensation cap.