ObamaCare’s Failure to Address Tort Reform: Insult to Injury
Guest blogger, Dr. Mark Neerhof, examines the need for meaningful tort reform in Illinois.
This following is a contribution from Dr. Mark G. Neerhof, a guest blogger for the Illinois Policy Institute. Dr. Neerhof is a Clinical Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.
As a practicing physician, there are ample reasons to be opposed to ObamaCare. The new law will have detrimental effects on the quality and availability of care, it will devastate the health insurance market and, as is becoming increasingly clear, it is a financial time bomb for our nations economy. Beyond dealing a devastating blow to the worlds finest healthcare system of which I am proud to be a part it does nothing meaningful to address the need for tort reform. As a physician practicing in a high exposure field (obstetrics), in what the American Tort Reform Foundation has listed as the fifth worst judicial hellhole in the country (Cook County), the fact that ObamaCare does not address tort reform is exasperating.
I have been practicing obstetrics for 22 years and reviewing medical malpractice claims for 16 years. Malpractice occurs, and when it does, patients must be compensated. But there are also many frivolous lawsuits. These suits add a tremendous cost to our healthcare system. One of the most telling statistics in this regard comes from a study by the Cato Institute, noting that in 2002 the medical liability system provided benefits to injured patients of $30 billion at the steep price of $113.7 billion. Do the math. This means society ultimately paid $80.7 billion for these lawsuits. This is to say nothing of the cost of the resultant practice of defensive medicine, which, although hard to estimate, dwarfs these costs.
The medical community has been pleading for a cap on non-economic damages (for example, pain and suffering, as opposed to lost wages and medical costs) to bring some sanity into this situation. In Illinois, the state legislature has passed tort reform on three occasions, including caps on non-economic damages. These reforms were essentially identical to laws that are in effect in Texas and California. However, the Illinois Supreme Court overturned all three of these laws.
Meanwhile, physicians are fleeing Illinois. A recent survey by Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine revealed that more than half of graduating residents and fellows are leaving the state. The medical-legal climate is a significant factor contributing to their decision to leave.
ObamaCare not only compromises the quality and availability of care, it also fails to address one of the overriding problems in medicine today, namely tort reform. ObamaCare must not stand. It must be repealed and replaced with responsible reform.
To learn more about medical malpractice reform in Illinois, be sure to check out our event with the Heritage Foundation in Springfield on March 10.