Medical Tort Reform Should be Part of Any Health Care Changes

Tort reform are two words we haven't heard President Barack Obama speak seriously as he pledges to make his universal health care plan pay for itself through cost-cutting.

But we'll know the president and congressional Democrats are serious about reform when they're willing to take on one of their most reliable interest groups — plaintiff's lawyers.

Obama has said he is worried about physicians practicing "defensive medicine" to protect themselves against malpractice claims, but he also has ruled out what he has called "artificial caps" on jury awards in malpractice cases.

The primary reason doctors order up all those tests Obama has questioned is to cover their backsides in case of a lawsuit. Real savings from the health care system will be difficult to achieve as long as doctors and hospitals are so vulnerable to the legal system.

In 2007, according to a survey by the consulting firm Towers Perrin, the American civil liability, or tort, system imposed $252 billion in costs on the U.S. economy. The cost of defending and paying medical malpractice claims accounted for about $30 billion of that total.

Consider that the estimated annual cost of ObamaCare is pegged at about $100 billion, and it's easy to see how to find some of the money to pay for it.

Between 1997 and 2007, the cost of dealing with medical torts nearly doubled — from $15.5 billion to $30.4 billion.

What is unquantifiable is the degree to which the threat of liability affected the practice of medicine, making it more defensive and thus more expensive.

Economic studies and various claims by physicians and attorneys differ.

In Britain, the loser in a civil suit must pay the costs of the winner, which cuts down on the filing of risky lawsuits, including malpractice. In France, a special panel settles malpractice claims.

If Democrats are determined to give Americans a European-style health system with heavy government involvement, they should also make the American tort law system more like the European model.

So far in Congress, attempts to create "special courts" for malpractice claims in the context of health care reform have been met with furious opposition from the lawyers who fund the lawmakers' campaign accounts.

But Congress can't call what it is doing comprehensive health care reform without providing meaningful relief from the threat of unwarranted malpractice lawsuits.

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