More proof that tort reform does not reduce health care costs
Another study, this one by the The Center for Justice and Democracy, that provides actual empirical evidence (as opposed to partisan rhetoric) what many have argued for some time: that limiting injured patients’ access to the courthouse has no real effect on overall health costs. Here is the full report. It is long, but I urge everyone to read this to educate themselves about the issue as opposed to listing to "pundits" on TV or talk radio.
Here are the bullet points from the report:
• Medical malpractice premiums, inflation-adjusted, are nearly the lowest they have been
in 30 years.
• Medical malpractice claims, inflation-adjusted, are dropping significantly, down 45
percent since 2000.
• Medical malpractice premiums are less than one-half of one percent of the country’s
overall health care costs; medical malpractice claims are a mere one-fifth of one percent
of health care costs. In over 30 years, premiums and claims have never been greater than
1% of our nation’s health care costs.
• Medical malpractice insurer profits are higher than the rest of the property casualty
industry, which has been remarkably profitable over the last five years.
• The periodic premium spikes that doctors experience, as they did from 2002 until 2005,
are not related to claims but to the economic cycle of insurers and to drops in investment
income.
• Many states that have resisted enacting severe restrictions on injured patients’ legal rights
experienced rate changes (i.e., premium increases or decreases for doctors) similar to
those in states that enacted severe restrictions on patients’ rights, i.e., there is no
correlation between “tort reform” and insurance rates for doctors.
