lawyers, doctors, and insurance companies
RE: malpractice bogeymen, and the real problem(s)
I completely disregard the common claim that "frivolous lawsuits" against doctors are driving up the cost of Healthcare. The other claims are more interesting anyway, and I've always resisted the tendency for our society to blame one group for all of a problem: in this case, lawyers.
FACT: Malpractice Insurance makes up roughly 1% of the cost of healthcare, as an aggregate, perhaps less in most instances ($6.4 billion was spent in 2000, and healthcare spending was $ in the U.S. that year).
FACT: Malpractice victories in court have given large sums to some people, and smaller sums to several others -- but the average settlement has neither increased nor declined in the past decade. Nor have these lawsuits gone up in per capita terms! ("There were 90,212 claims filed in 1995 and 86,480 claims filed in 2000".)
FACT: Most truly "frivolous" malpractice suits are thrown out by the hearing judge before they even make it to court -- and up to 90% may be dropped by plaintiffs before they are pursued into a costly court environment. In addition, most tort lawyers have a policy of only demanding payment for legal fees if there is a victory, thus encouraging them to only take cases they can win. Our justice system is not broken, and the majority of malpractice cases that end in victory for the plaintiff are probably actually cases of malpractice on the doctor's part.
Furthmore, doctors and their allied HMOs have far more resources to spend on well-educated experienced lawyer teams, whereas most individuals and families can only afford to hire a single lawyer from a local firm, who may or may not be all that talented.
Finally, it has been estimated by several studies (one cited here) that only 5% of doctors make up at least 50% of malpractice claims, and often these doctors have multiple claims on record individually! Self-policing by the medical profession could go a long way towards getting rid of this problem, without even involving lawyers.
This is what they do not tell you when they blame "frivolous lawsuits" for our healthcare costs. Given this list, I cannot possibly believe that "tort reform" or malpractice suit reform would lower healthcare costs at all.
I completely disregard the common claim that "frivolous lawsuits" against doctors are driving up the cost of Healthcare. The other claims are more interesting anyway, and I've always resisted the tendency for our society to blame one group for all of a problem: in this case, lawyers.
FACT: Malpractice Insurance makes up roughly 1% of the cost of healthcare, as an aggregate, perhaps less in most instances ($6.4 billion was spent in 2000, and healthcare spending was $ in the U.S. that year).
FACT: Malpractice victories in court have given large sums to some people, and smaller sums to several others -- but the average settlement has neither increased nor declined in the past decade. Nor have these lawsuits gone up in per capita terms! ("There were 90,212 claims filed in 1995 and 86,480 claims filed in 2000".)
FACT: Most truly "frivolous" malpractice suits are thrown out by the hearing judge before they even make it to court -- and up to 90% may be dropped by plaintiffs before they are pursued into a costly court environment. In addition, most tort lawyers have a policy of only demanding payment for legal fees if there is a victory, thus encouraging them to only take cases they can win. Our justice system is not broken, and the majority of malpractice cases that end in victory for the plaintiff are probably actually cases of malpractice on the doctor's part.
Furthmore, doctors and their allied HMOs have far more resources to spend on well-educated experienced lawyer teams, whereas most individuals and families can only afford to hire a single lawyer from a local firm, who may or may not be all that talented.
Finally, it has been estimated by several studies (one cited here) that only 5% of doctors make up at least 50% of malpractice claims, and often these doctors have multiple claims on record individually! Self-policing by the medical profession could go a long way towards getting rid of this problem, without even involving lawyers.
This is what they do not tell you when they blame "frivolous lawsuits" for our healthcare costs. Given this list, I cannot possibly believe that "tort reform" or malpractice suit reform would lower healthcare costs at all.
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