Fair Share Act Update
April 26, 2011

Hi, I’m Gene Barr, vice president of the Pennsylvania Chamber. Welcome to this month’s Pennsylvania Chamber Minute.

The effort to re-enact the Fair Share Act took a critical step forward this month when the House passed House Bill 1. In the process, pro-reform lawmakers rejected a number of amendments offered by opponents in an effort to weaken the bill and prevent meaningful reform.

Of course, House passage is only the first step. With Governor Tom Corbett’s stated support for the measure, the big test will be getting either House Bill 1 or its companion, Senate Bill 2, moved from the Judiciary Committee to the full Senate for a vote.

This means our work is not done.

For starters, the Judiciary Committee chairman has introduced his own bill on this issue in which Fair Share would only apply when the person doing the suing is more at fault. This rarely happens. So, this alternative isn’t reform, but is the preference of lawmakers siding with personal injury lawyers.

Adding to the challenge, opponents are waging a campaign of misinformation against the Fair Share Act. Most notable of their baseless claims is that House Bill 1 would lead to uncompensated or under-compensated victims, resulting in higher Medicaid costs they say would fall on Pennsylvania taxpayers.

Given that the state faces a $4.2 billion budget deficit, it might be easy for some to buy into this latest argument. But there simply is no evidence to support this claim. None of the 41 other states that have either reformed joint and several or never had the law on their books have experienced any such problems, even at the height of the recession.

This claim is nothing more than an attempt to draw attention away from the fact that House Bill 1 is a fair bill that passed in a bipartisan fashion in two prior legislative sessions; contains responsible exclusions and would bring Pennsylvania into the mainstream with its handling of financial liability in civil cases.

But it shows how far opponents are willing to go to stop reform.

That’s why your help is so important. Many of you responded to a recent call to action prior to the House vote. We appreciate your involvement.

Now, it’s the Senate’s turn to know that a vote against House Bill 1 or Senate Bill 2, or a vote in favor of any amendments to these bills, is a vote against job creators, doctors, hospitals, local governments, consumers, taxpayers and overall fairness.

Contact your state senator and tell them that it is time to enact the Fair Share Act!

Thanks for your support, and thanks for spending a minute of your time with the Pennsylvania Chamber, the statewide voice of business.