Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Why we need tort reform

Philip Howard, who has been writing about the burdens our bizarre legal has imposed on society, writes today about how much we could save if tort reform were attached to whatever health reform bill goes through the Congress.


Of course, the Democratic Party is in too much hock to the trial lawyers to let any such common-sense reform pass through a Congress they control. The President makes rhetorical gestures towards tort reform, but clearly doesn't mean it.
On Sept. 17, his secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, announced an initiative that will allow states to test a variety of programs to "put patient safety first and let doctors focus on practicing medicine." But in the initiative's statement of goals made no mention of defensive medicine, or of pilot projects such as special health courts. The funding for the initiative is a tiny $25 million. According to Katharine Seelye on the New York Times's Prescriptions blog, "the comparatively small budget seems commensurate with the administration's level of interest in the subject."

The upshot is simple: A few thousand trial lawyers are blocking reform that would benefit 300 million Americans. This is not just your normal special-interest politics. It's a scandal—it is as if international-trade policy was being crafted in order to get fees for customs agents.
I like his proposal of setting up special health care courts to hear these cases with medically educated judges who won't be swayed by sad stories.
Trial lawyers scoff at the idea of special health courts. "First you have a court for doctors," a spokesperson for the trial lawyers, Linda Lipsen, recently said, "and then what? A court for plumbers?" But America has a long tradition of special courts for situations where expertise and consistency are important—bankruptcy courts, tax courts, workers compensation tribunals, vaccine liability tribunals, Social Security tribunals, and many more.

Otherwise, just as the federal government is set to vastly expand the number of patients seeking care, we'll continue to see people leaving the medical profession or getting out of specialties where there are shortages such as obstetrics due to their fear of being sued.

If the Democrats were truly interested in lowering the cost of health care, they'd be jumping on such a solution that could save billions. But their fealty to special interests prevents them from any real reform.