Caps on Medical Malpractice Damages Are a Bad Idea. Period.

Michael C. George writes a great post on medical practice and tort reform (click here to read it).  He outlines the simple and clear case against modern cap-based ideas of “tort reform”: True medical malpractice occurs across our nation every day, and preventing patients from seeking a just resolution to their mistreatment will not improve health care.  He explains the “deal with the devil” that many Republicans want to make:

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has effectively studied the impact of tort reform on the costs of health care in the U.S.

The CBO discovered that the proposed draconian tort reform measures, rather than saving the health care system “hundreds of billions annually”, would only salvage around $5.4 billion a year. This represents a meager savings of two-tenths of one percent of the annual U.S. health care budget of $2.3 trillion. Late last year the CBO also reported that close to 5,000 more patients could die every year if tort reform measures are enacted, which would increase the national mortality rate by two-tenths of one percent. Thus, while limiting medical malpractice lawsuits through tort reform produces an insignificant savings to the health care budget, it also causes more fatalities to unsuspecting patients.

So the supposed “cost” benefits are not nearly as great as people say, and the added costs to quality of health are substantial.  Beyond these practical considerations, cap-oriented tort reform legislation will place legislators over the jury-based judicial system.  But go ahead – give more power to Congress.  The latest opinion polls show that they’ve been doing a bang-up job recently.