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Judd v. Drezga11/5/2004
moved or given up their practices, at least in part because of rising malpractice insurance rates. See Mary Brophy Marcus, Healthcare's "Perfect Storm", U.S. News & World Rep., July 1, 2002, at 39. While there is little indication that Utah faces an acute problem like Nevada's, the constitution does not compel the legislature to ignore such matters.
While the damage cap does indeed discriminate against medical malpractice victims with the most severe non-economic injuries, it does so reasonably, given the statute's purpose. In order to control costs and provide for the continuing availability of health care resources, the legislature was faced with a number of choices. By deciding which reforms to enact, it necessarily discriminated. However, the classifications established by the statute meet the heightened scrutiny test.
Although the classifications deny some victims a full recovery while allowing such a recovery to others, the classifications are not unconstitutional. While medical malpractice victims are deprived of a measure of their remedy where other tort victims are not, enacting damage caps on all tort victims would be imprudent and overbroad given that the legislature's goal was to control health care costs. Additionally, although medical malpractice victims, those with primarily non-economic, or quality of life, damages, are punished by the limitation when compared with those whose injuries are largely economic, this discrimination is permissible given the cap's purpose of controlling costs. As noted above, "caps on non-economic damages tend to be particularly effective in reducing costs because of the extreme variability of damage award attributable to pain and suffering." California's MICRA Reforms, supra, at 7. Thus, it appears there is support for the proposition that a large measure of the problem identified by the legislature results from fluctuation in cases with high non-economic damages, and a cap which targets just those problems is therefore not unconstitutional. Because the crisis identified by the legislature is primarily precipitated by the potential for large, unpredictable judgments, establishing a cap that prevents only those types of judgments is reasonably necessary to achieve the legislative purpose, despite punishing the most severely injured victims.
When attempting to resolve problems of policy, the legislature is inevitably forced to draw lines. In this instance the legislature has chosen to enact a cap, limiting the right to recover quality of life damages to $250,000. This cap severely injures young Athan, who will live a life greatly diminished by Dr. Drezga's negligence. But that is a policy choice made by the legislative branch, and we cannot say that it is unconstitutional. The legislature's purpose in enacting the damage cap is a valid and legitimate one. The cap is a reasonably necessary means of achieving that purpose, and it actually and substantially furthers it. Therefore, the damage cap is permissible under article I, section 24 of the Utah Constitution.
IV. DUE PROCESS
Next, Judd challenges the legislatively-imposed cap on quality of life damages on the ground that it violates Athan's right to due process under article I, section 7 of the Utah Constitution. Generally, we apply a rational basis test in substantive due process cases. Wells v. Children's Aid Soc'y of Utah, 681 P.2d 199, 206 (Utah 1984). However, this rational basis test is replaced by a more stringent test in cases where the rights impacted by the legislation are deemed to be "fundamental." Id. Judd argues that we should use such heightened scrutiny in Athan's case. However, because article I, section 11 rights are not properly cha
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