Meaningful Medical Liability Reform Is Essential

The leading health care bills floating around Congress all lack one essential ingredient—meaningful medical liability reform. Why is that important? Because a simple and effective way to reduce health care costs is to reform the broken medical malpractice system that enriches the trial bar, clogs our courts, promotes defensive medicine, drives up health care costs, and sometimes drives good physicians out of business.

Medical liability lawsuits add tremendous costs to the health care system both in doctors' malpractice insurance premiums and in defensive medicine—unnecessary tests and procedures prescribed solely to avoid future lawsuits. Rapidly increasing premiums have forced many doctors to move or even close their practices, limiting patients' access to care in some areas. The Department of Health and Human Services estimates that medical liability reform and reductions in defensive medicine could save up to $500 billion over a decade.

Why has Congress been so hesitant to include medical liability reform in its health care proposals? It may have something to do with the millions of dollars that the trial bar and their allies spent during the last election. Unlike doctors, other medical providers, and insurance companies, trial lawyers aren't willing to make any real concessions in the name of health care reform. For the plaintiffs' bar, shared sacrifice ends at the courthouse doors.

President Obama recently acknowledged the problem posed by medical liability lawsuits, and this is encouraging. However, the $25 million state grant program that the administration offered in response doesn't go nearly far enough. The American people expect better—a national poll released by the nonpartisan public interest group, Common Good, found that 83% of voters want Congress to include medical liability reform as part of any health care reform plan.

Anyone who suffers an injury due to a preventable medical error deserves legal redress. But there's a distinction between malpractice and not being perfect. To judge the difference, we need real reforms such as medical liability courts—similar to existing bankruptcy courts—that would apply specialized expertise to quickly and fairly resolve claims. Other reforms, like putting a reasonable cap on noneconomic damages, would also help ensure fairness for patients who are victims of malpractice, without turning into jackpot justice. These measures would discourage frivolous lawsuits, expedite settlements, and lower legal costs.

The health care reform bills being debated have received a lot of scrutiny—and rightfully so! It's time to ask our elected officials why trial lawyers get a pass on health care reform at the expense of ordinary citizens.