The issue of medical malpractice lawsuits and the push by some for tort reform has been an ongoing battle for decades. With the recent debate for health insurance reform in Washington, tort reform has once again been thrust into the mainstream spotlight. President Obama and others have hinted that tort reform compromises may be necessary to pass health care reform.
If health care reform comes at the cost of limiting patients’ rights through tort reform, then this whole health care debate will have amounted to two steps forward and two steps back for the well being of medical patients in this country.
Here are some myths often spread by tort reform supporters and the facts debunking them:
Myth: Medical malpractice lawsuits are frivolous or unnecessary.
Fact: 98,000 people die each year from preventable medical errors. That is 98,000 human beings who lost their lives due to a hospital’s or doctor’s mistake. The CDC doesn’t include preventable medical errors on its list of causes of death, but if it did, it would be the 6th leading cause of death in the U.S. Any system that attempts to hold doctors accountable and prevent these deaths is absolutely necessary.
As far as the claim that most suits are frivolous, that is simply not true. Very few claims are even filed in potential malpractice incidents and of the ones that are filed, the vast majority are meritorious. Frivolous lawsuits are weeded out by laws already on the books.
Myth: Patients filing suits for large damage sums are just looking to make it rich.
Fact: Patients just want justice. Those unfortunate enough to suffer injury from medical malpractice only want to be made whole again and have their resulting medical bills covered. Punitive damages are only leveled against the most negligent doctors to hold them accountable. One study cited by the American Association for Justice states that 70 percent of patients who experience an injury due to medical error were not told at the time by their doctor. It has been shown that doctors and hospitals that operate under full disclosure and apologize for medical errors are sued about half as much.
Myth: Tort reform would lower costs
Fact: Research shows that malpractice claims have been steady for years yet medical malpractice insurance premiums have continued to rise. States that have enacted caps on damages have still not seen a decrease in costs as patient bills and premiums continue to rise. Even if the most aggressive tort reform plans were to pass, there would only be about a 0.5 percent savings on nationwide medical spending. Those savings would likely come at the cost of thousands of lives as preventable medical errors would increase without the civil justice system keeping them in check.
A better way to lower health care costs would be to prevent medical errors. Billions of dollars would be saved if we could reduce the number of medical malpractice incidents nationwide.
Myth: Medical boards can punish bad doctors so we don’t need punitive damages.
Fact: The accountability structures for medical professionals often fail to punish negligence as effectively as the civil justice system and personal injury attorneys. Two thirds of doctors with 10 or more negligence payments have never been formally disciplined. Half of all hospitals have never reported a single disciplinary action against one of their own doctors. The civil justice system holds doctors accountable when other oversight programs fail. It is not meant to scare off good doctors. In fact, just six percent of doctors are responsible for 60 percent of medical negligence. Weeding out this small number of negligent doctors will benefit the entire medical industry from overall costs to patient health.
