Tort Reform For Healthcare

Why is Tort Reform not mentioned in Obama’s plans concerning healthcare reform? Tort reform, for those that may not know, is supposed to protect doctors and hospitals from bogus lawsuits. It is a reason why many conservatives will never support the “liberal” healthcare proposal. Conservatives believe that in order to get costs under control, Tort Reform is necessary.

Overall, Tort reform is not just a healthcare issue; it is a political and justice system issue.

It is political because it is mostly the right that is calling for this reform. And it is a justice system issue because it is not just the medical system that will be affected by the reform. The advocators of Tort Reform want to make it harder for anyone to sue to any kind of business.

For the sakes of this article, Tort Reform will be viewed only in regards to healthcare reform.

If you have listened to the raging healthcare reform debate across the country, you may have noticed Tort reform being brought up. On the surface, Tort Reform makes perfect sense. There are a lot of malpractice lawsuits. Sometimes the rewarded amount is well into the millions for the plaintiff. It is argued that the fear of lawsuits is making the costs of care, much higher than it should be. It is argued that the lawsuits are bringing up the costs substantially.

Because of this fear doctors order more tests than needed. They over diagnose problems in fear of under diagnosing may lead to a lawsuit. The doctors are forced to practice something that is referred to as “defensive medicine”. This, along with, actual bogus lawsuits have put the fear of the judicial system into doctors, hospitals, nurses, conservatives, insurance companies and other associated with the medical field.

An added note to this is that, ever more expensive malpractice insurance is added to the costs of doctors and hospitals, again resulting in the higher cost of healthcare.

So, why didn’t Obama talk about Tort Reform as much?

The answer is simple and has two parts. Part one, Tort is bigger than the healthcare topic, meaning, it is not just affecting healthcare costs but bogus lawsuits have effects on all type of lawsuits, not just malpractice.

Part two, is where the topic begins to become politicized, is that bogus lawsuits constitute about 2% of the actual costs of healthcare nationwide, That is the total amount of malpractice lawsuits. The bogus malpractice lawsuits will be a much smaller number than 2%.

Now, though bogus lawsuits are an extremely low percentage of the overall costs of healthcare, it is not bogus lawsuits that scare the doctors and hospitals to practice “defensive medicine”, it is just lawsuits. Any and all lawsuits. In fact lawsuits, scare everyone, anywhere in the U.S. and that is why there is a lot of support for Tort Reform.

As oppose to a fractional percent of the total costs of healthcare being attributed to bogus lawsuits, it is estimated that anywhere from 5% to 9% of the total of the total costs are due to "defensive medicine".

The fear of the lawsuits is more costly than the lawsuits.

But is this a healthy fear? Are the benefits of this fear based on legit concerns? Or are the concerns political and/or based on irrational fear?

There are many doctors that will, and are, expressing their views and fears about the fear of malpractice lawsuits. Many of them tell stories and experiences of their colleagues and themselves. And we listen and don’t realize that listening to stories from just the doctor side are like listening to the cigarette companies tell tales of lawsuits for merely providing a product that someone buys through their own free will. In both incidences the situation is not as simple and innocent.

The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) produced an article highlighting these medical malpractice lawsuit statistics, with regard to patient deaths:

• 106,000 patients die each year from the negative effects of medication
• 80,000 patients die each year due to complications from infections incurred in hospitals
• 20,000 deaths per year occur from other hospital errors
• 12,000 people die every year as a result of unnecessary surgery
• 7,000 medical malpractice deaths per year are attributed to medication errors in hospitals

This totals up to 225,000 deaths each year, due to medical negligence of some nature. And that number is ever growing.

In 2006, a report was produced by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, in which it is stated that medication errors are one of the most common medical mistakes, causing injury or harm to at least 1.5 million people every year.

One must remember that the people filing the lawsuits are saying that they, or someone they’re related to, were victimized by poor practices and/or negligence etc.

Only about 25% of all malpractice lawsuits filed result in a win for the plaintiff. Only one in four. This goes against the assumption that there are juries that are ever sympathetic to the plaintiff.

But even that statistic is not that innocent. This means that 3 out of 4 cases do not result in the plaintiff being rewarded. But doctors and hospitals still had to put aside time, and spend money on court fees, lawyers’ fees, etc., to argue their defense. But don’t forget, so did the plaintiff. Who do you think has the bigger and deeper pockets?

Who so you think has the better lawyers? Given that 3 out of 4 malpractice suit favor the hospital, I'll make an educated gues, it isn't the one with the 1 to 4 odds.

It is also to be noted that this approximately 25% number of successful malpractice cases is far below other tort cases, but the compensation is higher.

So, only a quarter of all cases filed against doctors are won. And only 2% of the healthcare budget is affected by lawsuits (all lawsuits, not just the bogus ones). Then why does the right feel so passionate about destroying healthcare reform if it doesn’t include Tort Reform? The answer may be that it is just politics as usual.

The advocates of Tort Reform like to ignore the fact that people that file lawsuits are not all using the justice system as a lottery ticket. They are trying to hold someone responsible for the injury or injustice that they were a victim of. This is a right everyone has. It is a right businesses have as well.

Tort Reformers really only want to limit the right of consumers and patients to sue businesses, but they do not want anything to limit business to business lawsuits.

But wait; there are still the real added costs of “defensive medicine”. The fear of lawsuits is raising the costs of healthcare expenditures right? Well one of the things that people sue hospitals for is having been over diagnosed. Having to go through and pay for invasive tests and procedures for something they do not have, is not something a patient likes to do, or go broke trying to pay.

Doctors that are practicing defensive medicine are not doing their job right. This is not the patients’ fault, though Tort Reformers like to act as if it is. If they do a good job, they won't get sued.

The doctors, hospitals, insurers, politicians etc. that are coming out to speak up for Tort Reform are not looking out for their patients. They are looking out for themselves. They are not saying, "help me make my patient's life healthier", they are saying "I'm afraid of lawsuits".

There are 1.5 million people that are victims of malpractice every year. They, the patients, are the victims. Tort Reformers want you to believe that the insurers, hospitals and doctors are the victims.

If the police were shooting 1.5 million citizens a year because of bad decisions, Tort Reformers would want to make sure that citizens could not sue the police for their bad decisions.

1.5 million Americans are victims of medical mishaps, every year. Meaning that the last eight years with the Bush administration 12 million Americans were victimized by doctors and hospitals. Tort Reformers wants to silent those victims.

Why didn't President Obama commit to Tort Reform? Maybe because there are over 12 million Americans that are very much against Tort Reform. Maybe because he sees that the victims of malpractice are not the doctors, but the patients. Maybe a 2% cost to the overall budget is acceptable to insure that no real victim of malpractice is ever denied their right to hold doctors, hospitals, insurers, pharmaceutical companies and everyone else in the medical industry responsible for their actions.