Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Financing Reform: Limiting Malpractice Liability?
"In closed-door talks, Mr. Obama has been making the case that reducing malpractice lawsuits — a goal of many doctors and Republicans — can help drive down health care costs, and should be considered as part of any health care overhaul, according to lawmakers of both parties, as well as A.M.A. officials."
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Limiting liability for malpractice can lead to some bizarre results. For the sake of argument, say major malpractice is capped at 1 million dollars.
Now, imagine that a knee surgery goes horribly awry, and the patient loses her leg from the knee down. Major loss. Patient's eligible for the million. She sues and gets it.
In the next courtroom, there's a trial going on for a patient whose malpractice-generated spinal injury caused him to lose the use of both legs. Does Barack Obama or anyone else really want the jury to impose the same cap on both of those injuries?
There are plenty of other problems, too. But that's the simplest and most apparent one.
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