Report on Health Care, Med Mal and Tort Reform

The Center for Justice & Democracy has published a response to the Congressional Budget Office's memo which estimates that a $500,000 cap on punitive damages and a $250,000 cap on pain-and-suffering damages would save $54 billion over ten years and lower liability insurance premiums by 10%. The CJ&D's report concludes that the Congressional Budget Office's memo is based on a small handful of studies, several of which are noted to contradict each other. It also finds that the CBO's memo only finds an extremely small percentage of health care savings and that the CBO virtually admits that to the extent defensive medicine exists as all, it can be controlled through simply managing care correctly as opposed to taking away patients’ rights and possibly killing and injuring more people. Finally, the report concludes that tort reforms can increase costs rather than save them. "The only logical conclusion", says the CJ&D's report, "is that not only should Congress not enact this measure, but states should repeal these laws, as well." The CJ&D's report is available here.