Illusive Tort Reform Would Lower Health Costs

I have constantly commented on ways to make health care cheaper, without impacting the entire system with a socialized version.

One way would be to reduce provider costs. Physicians and hospitals say this could be done if they would curtail defensive practices.

The accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers says that about 10% of medical expense is attributable to medical malpractice lawsuits. Only about 2% is caused by direct lawsuit costs.

Add about 5% to 9%, due to MDs having to practice defensive medicine. That is, they add tests in case a plaintiff lawyer asks them in court: Questions such as “Why didn’t you do this procedure…?” (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole at Twitter.)