A lawsuit was recently won by the family of a University student who died while at Sacred Heart Medical Center with an unexpectedly lethal illness. A few days later, someone responded with an opinion that the verdict was unfair and the defendants were not guilty. His arguments were compelling, but what do I know? I’m not a doctor and I wasn’t on the jury. All I do know is that when I go to the doctor or the hospital, and they look at me for maybe seven minutes, they better have some real incentive to get it right.
Some folks say this suing business has gotten out of hand — there are too many, it’s ruining the industry, it’s limiting our choices. President Bush has declared that tort reform is a key part of his “pro-growth” agenda, saying that it “would have made a difference” to benefit the economy. But a recent study by the National Center for State Courts found that medical malpractice lawsuits per capita have actually decreased. Fewer cases went to trial in 2002 than in 1962.
While Bush claims that “everybody pays more for health care” due to “excessive litigation,” the president of the American Tort Reform Association said in 1999, “We wouldn’t tell you or anyone that the reason to pass tort reform would be to reduce insurance rates.”
Malpractice premiums as a percentage of all health costs have declined from 0.95 percent in 1988 to 0.56 percent in 2000, while prescription drugs costs make up about 11 percent of all health costs, projected to rise to 14 percent by 2010. Controlling the cost of drugs will have far more impact on insurance premiums than malpractice reform. Despite these facts, the president and Oregon’s senators chose to support a Medicare bill that would prevent the Medicare administrator from negotiating lower prescription drug costs.
As is so often the case these days, some folks try really hard to confuse the issues. Don’t be fooled; don’t give up your power. The president and his friends are not on your side; they just want your money. They want to prevent you from getting better drug prices and they want to prevent you from being wholly compensated when you are injured — or die — because of a provider’s mistake. That’s what I call “excessive.”