Obama Again Flirting with Empty GOP Medical Malpractice Proposal

[Donnachaidh]

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2011/01/26/obama-again-flirting-with-empty-gop-medical-malpractice-proposal/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CampaignSilo+%28Jane+Hamsher+Campaign+Silo%29&utm_content=Twitter

During Tuesday’s State of the Union, President Obama once again attempted to show how “bipartisan” he can be by claiming to still be “willing to look at other ideas to bring down costs, including one that Republicans suggested last year: medical malpractice reform to rein in frivolous lawsuits.”

While this might make Obama look open to Republican ideas, it unfortunately plays into a myth, a basically worthless policy idea from Republicans that really isn’t a serious cost control idea at all. There is little evidence that the Republican push to cap medical malpractice liability would actually reduce defensive medicine or make a real impact in overall health care spending.

Dr. William Hsiao examined the traditionally Republican proposal of liability caps as part of his official proposal for the Vermont state legislature on reforming their health care system, and Hsiao found it would do extremely little to reduce costs in the state. From the report:

There is relatively little evidence supporting the assertion that traditional tort reform could produce significant reductions in healthcare spending, despite physicians frequent claims otherwise. The CBO’s most recent estimates of the impact of national tort reform are based on a conventional reform package that includes capping awards for non-economic damages at $250,000, caps on awards for punitive damages of $500,000 and limited statutes of limitations. The CBO found that this package of reforms would reduce national medical liability insurance premiums by 10 percent. Given their estimate that the direct costs of medical liability are 2 percent of health expenditure, the CBO estimates this type of tort reform would reduce U.S. health expenditure by 0.2 percent, attributable to lower direct costs for medical liability. As a result of recent research on the impact of positive defensive medicine on medical expenditure, the CBO also reports that an additional decrease of 0.3 percent in national health expenditure attributed to reduced defensive medical care would occur with this tort reform package.22 Similar estimates of the impact of tort reform derive from other empirical research using different data sources and time periods. The estimated range of savings derived from a 10 percent decrease in malpractice premiums is 0.13 percent to 1.2 percent of total healthcare expenditures.

More at the link --

[damntexdem]

1. The so-called "tort reform" idiocy crops up repeatedly.

It would not "save" much in costs. It would leave many who have been maltreated without adequate legal recourse. And it would lower the quality bar by making it cheaper for providers to give low-quality and/or incompetent care. In sum, it's an all-around loser of an idea but one the providers (and insurers) love, so one Repukes and some blue dogs push.