Reforming Medical Malpractice

With everyone screaming for health care reform, why aren't our elected officials considering tort reform? Why are we afraid to limit legal liability for doctors?

From a recent Washington Post article:
Health-care reform is bogged down because none of the bills before Congress deals with the staggering waste of the current system, estimated to be $700 billion to $1 trillion annually. The waste flows from a culture of health care in which every incentive is to do more -- that's how doctors make money and that's how they protect themselves from lawsuits.

In short, doctors pay huge premiums for malpractice insurance, and end up ordering more tests in an effort to protect themselves from mistakes. This is a lose - lose proposition, adding costs at an increasing rate. And who do you think pays the bill? You! The medical consumer. Through increased fees.

Here's how it works. Let's imagine that you go to a surgeon to remove a mole. That surgeon is paying $240,000 per year in malpractice insurance ($20,000 per month). This surgeon has a low (yes, that is a low surgeon's rate!) rate of insurance because she hasn't made many mistakes in the past that ended up in court. So not only will you pay higher fees to help your surgeon recover the insurance premium, but the chances are very high that she will order unnecessary tests just to be extra sure you won't have a legal leg to stand on if something goes wrong.

So why aren't we fixing this? Are we afraid to limit damages paid in cases of terrible mistakes? Do we feel it is unjust to put a price on death (the worst possible case)? Or are we simply seeing what happens when politicians are afraid of lawyers?

I think we are afraid of lawyers. I know my doctors are!