Thursday, January 28, 2010

Tort Reform

I am looking for help
I have been doing some research on Tort Reform, particularly medical malpractice tort reform and would be very interested in any studies that any of you have seen that show that excessive medical malpractice awards are actually a significant factor in health care inflation.
I have looked and cannot find any studies that make that claim.
Can anybody help?

Thanks

4 comments:

Michael Kirsch, M.D. said...

Look over some of the posts on defensive medicine at www.MDWhistleblower.blogspot.com under Legal Quality. While there is no 'hard data' here, you will hear from a physician's view how the current medical liabilty system raises medical costs for us all.

Uncle Walt said...

Dr. Kirsch,

Thanks I will look through the posts

Uncle Walt said...

Dr. Kirsch,

Through your blog I ended up at the blog of the Director of the Office of Management and the Budget (OMB) discussing the latest OMB numbers on the effect of tort reform.

Their estimate is that nationwide tort reform would save the US Government approximately $5B/year.

Thats real money in absolute terms, but I don't see it as making a significant difference in overall health costs.

I appreciate your comment and enjoy your blog. I will be posting my own proposal for tort reform in the next couple of days and look forward to your comments.

Michael Kirsch, M.D. said...

Thanks. Keep in mind, that tort reform would bring many other benefits besides cost savings.