CBO Score Proves Medical Liability Reform Savings are Real

by Lisa Rickard

From the Washington Post yesterday:

Lawmakers could save as much as $54 billion over the next decade by imposing an array of new limits on medical malpractice lawsuits, congressional budget analysts said today -- a substantial sum that could help cover the cost of President Obama's overhaul of the nation's health system.

New research shows that legal reforms would not only lower malpractice insurance premiums for medical providers, but would also spur providers to save money by ordering fewer tests and procedures aimed primarily at defending their decisions in court, Douglas Elmendorf, director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, wrote in a letter to Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).

This finding is momentous. If enacted, medical liability reform would save more than ten percent of the cost of the Senate Finance Committee proposal’s coverage provisions – one of the largest impacts on deficit reduction in the bill.

In our fractious health care debate, one of the few issues of agreement among the American people has been support of meaningful medical liability reform. The CBO analysis should underscore what two-thirds of voters have said: Congress should include meaningful medical liability reform in the health care reform bill. Neglecting to include medical liability reform benefits only the plaintiffs’ lawyers. Including it benefits every American participating in our health care system.

Comments

[Jeremy Engdahl-Johnson]

Today's medical professional liability system is too adversarial and too expensive. There are alternatives. More at http://www.healthcaretownhall.com/?p=1596

[website design]

It was interesting to read how different news outlets spun this report. The LA Times for example ran a headline suggesting that the savings would be much lower than expected.