Illinois Supreme Court rules against tort reform
The Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday found that a state law capping non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases was unconstitutional. The ruling will lift the cap which had previously limited pain-and-suffering damages at $500,000 or $1 million, depending on whether the case was being brought against an individual doctor or a hospital.
Illinois' ruling comes at a time when Missouri's Supreme Court is also debating whether to backtrack on a failed experiment with tort reform. Here in the Show Me State, the cap on non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases has been $350,000 since a 2005 tort reform law. All this experiment has shown us, though, is that this very low cap saves hospitals a small percentage on malpractice insurance while no savings is seen by the health care consumer. This negligible savings comes at a great cost to those who are seriously injured by medical malpractice.
Supporters of tort reform in Illinois were predictably disappointed in Thursday's decision. Some statements by tort reform advocates in the media claimed the decision was more about lawyers than patients and that tort reform is still the best way to curb health care costs.
What supporters don't realize is that tort reform isn't about protecting patients at all. It's about taking money directly out of the pocket of seriously injured people at the most challenging moment in their lives and protecting hospitals and insurance companies. Perhaps tort reform could be seen as viable option if the ends justified the means, but the ultimate goal of tort reform, cutting health care costs, is not being met. Most independent studies claim that even if the United States as a whole adopted an aggressive set of tort reform policies, the total savings would only be one or two percent on the total cost of health care. Keep in mind that this tiny savings will be financed by the pain and suffering of thousands of malpractice victims who won't receive their full reward as determined by a jury.
Hopefully Missouri follows Illinois' lead and we can go back to putting patients first.
