Tort reform and health care

Tort reform and health care costs

Will tort reform bring health care costs under control?

Kash at Angry Bear does some "back of the envelope" calculations which indicate that this isn't where we're going to get the big savings: "Bush's Solution to Rising Health Care Costs"

"...According to a CBO briefing on the subject, the total cost of malpractice lawsuits in the US was about $24 billion in 2002, up from about $21 billion in 2000. Their estimates are that significant tort reform may be able to cut these costs by 25 to 30 percent, thereby reducing some of this country's health care costs by $6 or $7 billion per year.

Unfortunately, the total cost of health care in the US was about $1,557 billion in 2003, an increase of about $110 billion from 2002. If tort reform had been passed earlier this year, and every dollar saved from reduced malpractice suits was passed on to consumers, then the effect on the country's health care bill would (with luck) have been to reduce it from perhaps $1,670bn in 2004 all the way down to $1,663bn."

Kash also cites a CBO study of state level tort reform suggesting that there has been little or no change in spending on defensive medicine associated with these efforts.

Comments

[r4 games]

"Tort Reform Could Save Health Care $54 Billion, Says CBO" I think I may have heard that from the last president, but it fell on deaf ears in congress that was controlled by NANCY THE GOLDEN GAVEL PELOSI. The hate bush crowd delayed legislation that could have already saved Americans billions on health care and even made the debate less hostile now. Hindsight has always been the weapon of the left and a luxury that to many people allow them. Stay Sharp!