http:\/\/www.cato.org\/pubs\/pas\/pa685.pdf<\/a><\/p>\r\nAnd they both come to somewhat similar conclusions, namely that\u00a0medical malpractice awards don’t drive up the cost of health care.<\/p>\r\n
But what is\u00a0disturbing\u00a0in these reports is that consumers, people who have been harmed and have a cause of action against a medical provider, are being short-changed because of the caps. In fact,\u00a0even worse, they are\u00a0losing their ability to sue as lawyers\u00a0shy away from bringing\u00a0litigation that is expensive to try, with little potential reward.<\/p>\r\n
The Public Citizen report dealt with Texas, which set a $250,000 limit on noneconomic damages for medical malpractice suits in 2003.<\/p>\r\n
“A common misconception among policymakers and pundits is that\u00a0medical malpractice litigation is significantly, or even chiefly, to blame for our country’s skyrocketing health care costs and steadily diminishing access to\u00a0care,” the report said. “Those who blame malpractice litigation for the broken economics\u00a0of our health care system typically tout laws limiting\u00a0physicians’ liability as the answer.”<\/p>\r\n
But the data in Texas doesn’t bear that out, despite the claims to the contrary by Texas Gov.\u00a0Rick Perry,\u00a0\u00a0who spearheaded the legislation limiting cap awards,\u00a0according to the Public Citizen report.<\/p>\r\n
“While litigation over malpractice in Texas has plummeted dramatically since the caps were imposed, residents of Texas (except for people with financial connections to liability insurance companies and, to a lesser extend, doctors)\u00a0have realized few, if any, benefits. Instead, the\u00a0health care picture in Texas has worsened\u00a0significantly by almost any measure,” the report said.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n
Since the Lone Star State imposed the caps, its Medicare spending has outpaced the national average.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n
“Per enrollee spending\u00a0for Medicare’s two main programs\u00a0ranked second-highest in Texas among the 50 states in 2009,” the report said. “In 2003, Texas ranked seventh … These figures contradict the theory that medical malpractice litigation is driving health care costs.”<\/p>\r\n
In addition,\u00a0premiums for private\u00a0health insurors have risen and outpaced the national average. Oh, by the way, the percent of Texans who are uninsured\u00a0has also increased, “solidifying the state’s dubious distinction of\u00a0having the highest uninsured rate in the country,” according to the report.<\/p>\r\n
In addition,\u00a0the per capita increase in the number of doctors\u00a0practicing in Texas has been slower than prior years, and\u00a0“the prevalence of\u00a0physicians in non-metropolitan areas has declined,” according to the report.<\/p>\r\n
The cap in Texas appears to have been a boon to insurance companies and doctors.\u00a0For one insuror, premiums for doctors were\u00a050 percent less in 2010 versus 2003.\u00a0\u00a0But the medical malpractice payments that insurors are issuing have dropped 74 percent, adjusted for inflation,\u00a0from 2003 to 2010, the report said. That translates into a “windfall” for insurance companies, according to the report.<\/p>\r\n
“But the benefits realized by these two groups have not translated into savings\u00a0for regular Texans\u00a0or for the taxpayers who\u00a0 fund Medicare,” the report said.<\/p>\r\n
The Public Citizen report is very detailed,\u00a0and it all can’t be presented here. But one of the highlights is the section on health insurance premiums.\u00a0Caps have not kept those costs down.<\/p>\r\n
“Although health insurance costs in Texas have not outpaced national rates as dramatically as have Medicare expenditures in the state,\u00a0they have risen faster than the national average since the caps were imposed,” according to the report. “Family health insurance premiums in Texas rose by 51.7 percent between 2003 and 2010. Nationally, they rose by 50 percent. Since\u00a02004, health insurance premiums in Texas have risen 13.1 percent faster in Texas than nationally.”<\/p>\r\n
Here are\u00a0the report’s conclusions.<\/p>\r\n
“Despite the sales campaign to promote Texas as an exhibit of the merits of limiting doctors’ liability for mistakes, the real world data\u00a0tell the opposite story. Health care in Texas has become more expensive and less accessible since the state’s malpractice caps took effect.<\/p>\r\n
The beneficiaries of the new system are the doctors who escape accountability\u00a0for their errors and the liability\u00a0insurance \u00a0companies that reap a windfall of inflated premiums.\u00a0Regular Texans are the losers. They include not only the victims of\u00a0medical malpractice who are deprived of the chance to recover damages but also\u00a0the taxpayers\u00a0who must foot the bill for the future medical costs of seriously injured patients.”<\/p>\r\n
That conclusion is similar to the one made in the study by the Cato Institute, on whether mandatory caps on medical malpractice\u00a0damages harm consumers. The executive summary of that report\u00a0makes its position pretty clear.<\/p>\r\n
“Supporters of capping\u00a0court awards for medical malpractice\u00a0argue that caps will make health care\u00a0more affordable,” the\u00a0Cato report said. “It may not be that simple.”<\/p>\r\n
That’s the understatement of the year.<\/p>\r\n
“First, caps on awards\u00a0may result in some patients not receiving adequate compensation\u00a0for injuries\u00a0they suffer as the result of physician negligence,” the Cato report said.<\/p>\r\n
“Second, because caps limit physician liability, they can also mute incentives for physicians to reduce the risk of negligent injuries,” the report added.<\/p>\r\n
And contrary to what supporters of caps claim, “medical malpractice awards do track actual damages,” according to the Cato report.<\/p>\r\n
But here is the heart\u00a0of the matter, from the report.<\/p>\r\n
“If the medical malpractice liability insurance\u00a0industry does indeed protect consumers, then policies that reduce liability\u00a0or shield physicians from oversight by carriers may harm consumers,” it said.<\/p>\r\n
In its conclusion, the Cato report\u00a0said that patients are protected by a\u00a0interdependent\u00a0system of oversight that includes evaluations, hospital oversight and the medical malpractice industry.<\/p>\r\n
“Underlying nearly all of these activities is the threat of legal liability for negligent injuries,” the report said. “Reducing physician liability for negligent care by capping court awards, all else equal, will reduce the resources\u00a0allocated to medical professional liability underwriting and oversight and make many patients worse off. Legislators who see mandatory liability caps as a cost-containment tool should look elsewhere.”<\/p>\r\n
Amen.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Despite the rheroric\u00a0of many lawmakers and the misconceptions of\u00a0the public, putting caps on medical practice cases doesn’t hold down\u00a0spiraling health care and insurance costs, according to two recent\u00a0reports on the topic.\u00a0\u00a0 “A Failed Experiment: Health Care in Texas Has Worsened in Key Respects Since State Instituted Liability Caps in 2003,” done by the public advocacy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[523,4,522,521],"class_list":["post-839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cato-institute-report-on-medical-malpractive-caps","tag-medical-malpractice","tag-medical-malpratice-caps","tag-wisconsin-medical-malpractice-attorney"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cerebral-palsy-medicalmalpractice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cerebral-palsy-medicalmalpractice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cerebral-palsy-medicalmalpractice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cerebral-palsy-medicalmalpractice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cerebral-palsy-medicalmalpractice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/cerebral-palsy-medicalmalpractice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":859,"href":"https:\/\/cerebral-palsy-medicalmalpractice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839\/revisions\/859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cerebral-palsy-medicalmalpractice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cerebral-palsy-medicalmalpractice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cerebral-palsy-medicalmalpractice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}