USC Dornsife/LA Times Poll: Support for Prop. 46 Drops Steeply as Voters Hear Initiative Details

Californians in favor of drug testing doctors, split on increasing cap on medical negligence lawsuits

Contact: Michelle Boston at msboston@dornsife.usc.edu or (213) 821-9311; Merrill Balassone at balasson@usc.edu or (213) 740-6156

A press call discussing these results and additional results on the California governor’s race, youth immigrants and police relations is MONDAY, September 15 at 11:30 a.m. PT. Call-in spots are limited. Call-in number: (866) 269-9612; International: (612) 332-0718.

Los Angeles, September 13, 2014 — Californians back Proposition 46 by wide margins until they hear details about the ballot initiative, according to results from the latest USC Dornsife/LA Times Poll.

Initially, 62 percent of voters supported the initiative when read the ballot language, with 28 percent in opposition. Proposition 46 increases the cap on medical malpractice lawsuits and requires that doctors receive drug and alcohol testing with positive results reported to the California Medical Board.

When presented with a statement detailing the arguments of the proponents as well as the opponents of Proposition 46, support for the initiative declined steeply to 50 percent opposed and 39 percent in favor.

This statement noted that the proposition would ensure patient safety and improve medical care by holding physicians accountable. It continued that California’s $250,000 limit on pain and suffering awards in malpractice suits is decades old, and that lawyers for injured people can no longer afford to take these important cases unless the limit is raised. Further, it stated that raising the malpractice cap would drive up state and local government costs by hundreds millions of dollars each year, which would result in higher insurance rates. More bureaucracy would result, taking doctors away from providing care. In addition, a database of Californian’s personal medical prescription information would be created and run by the government.

“The initiative sponsors were very smart,” said Dan Schnur, director of the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll and executive director of the Unruh Institute of Politics of USC. “They tried to cover up a very controversial policy measure with a very popular one. But a ballot initiative is only as strong as its weakest link, and the polling shows that voters’ concerns about medical malpractice are outweighing their eagerness for doctors to be drug tested.”

When queried about specific elements of Proposition 46, 70 percent of voters said they favored requiring drug and alcohol testing of doctors and requiring that the California Medical Board suspend doctors who received positive tests for drugs or alcohol. Twenty-four percent of voters opposed.

In contrast, voters were split about increasing the cap on medical negligence lawsuits from $250,000 to $1 million. Forty-six percent of California voters opposed the proposal and 43 percent were in favor.

The latest USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll, the largest statewide survey of registered voters, was conducted Sept. 2-8 and includes a significant oversample of Latino voters as well as one of the most robust cell phone samples in the state. The full sample of 1,507 registered voters has a margin of error of +/- 2.9 percentage points.

Additional poll results and methodology are available here.

WEBSITE: https://dornsife.usc.edu/poll

TWITTER: @usclatpoll

About the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences/Los Angeles Times Poll: The USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll is a series of statewide public opinion polls in California, designed to survey voter attitudes on a wide range of political, policy, social and cultural issues.

Conducted at regular intervals throughout the year, the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll is one of the largest polls of registered voters in the state and has been widely cited, helping to inform the public and to encourage discourse on key political and policy issues.

About USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences: USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences is the heart of the university. The largest, oldest and most diverse of USC’s 19 schools, USC Dornsife is composed of more than 30 academic departments and dozens of research centers and institutes. USC Dornsife is home to approximately 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students and more than 750 faculty members with expertise across the humanities, social sciences and sciences.

About the Los Angeles Times: The Los Angeles Times is the largest metropolitan daily newspaper in the country, with a daily readership of 2 million and 3 million on Sunday, and a combined print and interactive local weekly audience of 4.5 million. The fast-growing latimes.com draws over 10 million unique visitors monthly.