Med mal and health care reform debate continues

In response to Rep. Michael Burgess's bill to enact Texas-style damage caps for the entire country, Ronen Avraham and Charles Silver (professors at theat the University of Texas Law School and David A. Hyman (professor at the Colleges of Law and Medicine at the University of Illinois) have published a short article titled "Texas-style caps on noneconomic damages isn’t smart tort reform" -- available here. In part, they connclude: "In our judgment, the Texas approach is too simple-minded. Texans got nothing in return when they gave all healthcare providers the benefit of caps on noneconomic damages in 2003. They received no guarantee that the supply or the quality of healthcare available to Texans would improve, or that costs would go down. . . .Any restrictions the federal government imposes should be "smart" ones. They should insulate only providers who deliver cost-effective healthcare that protects patients from harm." Thanks to Christopher Robinette of the TortsProf blog for the information.