Today’s Daily News Journal Editorial Board asks Sen. Jim Tracy (R-16) to stop siding with nursing home industry lobbyists and start standing up for families of loved ones found abused in Tennessee nursing homes.
The editorial praises Rep. Kent Coleman (D-49) for killing the House’s nursing home bill that would have placed a capped value of an abused loved one’s life over the nursing home’s bottom line.
Legislation placing damage caps on nursing home lawsuits should be dead for the session after it failed in a House panel.
State Rep. Kent Coleman, D-Murfreesboro, was one of three legislators who voted against the bill in the civil practice and procedures subcommittee, effectively killing it for the year with a 3-3 deadlock.
Coleman should be commended for taking a stand against the bill, which has been dubbed the “Kill Old People Cheap Act.”
Sponsored by Rep. Jon Lundberg, R-Bristol, and Sen. Jim Tracy, R-Shelbyville, who represents much of Rutherford County, the bill sets a $300,000 cap on punitive damages, losses that are hard to assess such as pain, suffering and mental anguish.
Tracy’s bill has been awaiting a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee. He should take it off notice and tell the nursing home industry to go back and rework the legislation.
Our families deserve justice. They don’t deserve lobbyists telling a court how much our parents’ lives are worth when nursing homes are found to be at fault for their neglect and abuse. Rep. Coleman took a principled stand for our families when he killed that bill, and now it’s time for Sen. Jim Tracy to do the same.
Use the following form to tell Sen. Jim Tracy to reconsider his support for SB 2160.
