Budget Office Misquoted on MalPractice Reform

Robert Blanchard

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If you start seeing headlines that medical malpractice reforms could result in substantial savings to the health care system, don't beleive it. The Congreesional Budgret Office released a repot that savings could be acheived, but if also found that “imposing limits on [the right to sue for damages] might be expected to have a negative impact on health outcomes.” In other words, it would result in more seriously injured people, and the cost of providing care to those people is not included in the assessment of savings. Also, the CBO reprts admits that even if the most severe restrictions were put in place, the savings would be less than 5% of the total cost of health care. This report itself miquotes previous studies on the cost of the malpractice tort system which have always found the overall impact of lawsuits to be about 1.5% of total health care cost.

You decide, is this savings enough to do away with the responsiblity for the damages caused by negligent health care? Do we want a health care system that is unaccountable to the people it injures?