Personal Injury Law

Harvard study confirms malpractice defense a small percent of healthcare cost

By Ryan Bradley, Esq.

In the wake of the midterm elections, an all too familiar topic has once again risen among political pundits: healthcare. Specifically, some in congress seem ready to try and repeal the latest healthcare reform and replace it with something else. Unfortunately, that something else would likely include some type of tort reform designed to restrict payouts in medical malpractice cases.

Tort reform advocates argue that some of the major contributors to out of control healthcare costs are frivolous medical malpractice lawsuits with large settlements and the insurance doctors carry to protect themselves from these suits. Their suggestion is usually some sort of cap on damages that can be paid to the injured victims of medical error.

Opponents of tort reform have long questioned the role that malpractice cases play in rising healthcare costs and a new study from Harvard supports the idea that this role is very minimal. According to the study, which was published in the Health Affairs journal, the medical malpractice system only makes up 2.4% of the total amount spent on healthcare in America. This includes settlements paid to victims, malpractice insurance, and all the legal costs associated with the process.

While reforming healthcare in America is a complicated issue, including tort reform is pretty clearly a mistake. Even if you could eliminate all the costs associated with medical malpractice cases, which is impossible even with the most aggressive tort reform measures, you are barely making a dent in the overall cost of healthcare. This is certainly not the massive cost controlling tool that tort reformers claim and it comes with an incredible human cost. Many people that are seriously injured by medical errors would have their settlements or verdicts limited arbitrarily, perhaps leaving them unable to pay for their recovery.

Another issue that seems to be at work here is popular perception of medical malpractice cases. Because of a few highly publicized incidents, many people seem to think that all malpractice cases are like striking it rich in a multi-million dollar lottery and that a large number of cases are based on frivolous claims anyway. In reality, the court process weeds out cases that are considered frivolous and the average case settles for less that $500,000 before going to trial.

Hopefully whatever healthcare reforms remain permanent, they put patients and injury victims' needs first.

Full post as published by Missouri Accident Lawyer Blog on November 05, 2010 (boomark / email).