by David Arkush, Peter Gosselar, Christine Hines and Taylor Lincoln
Public Citizen
December 2009
Supporters of limiting health providers’ liability have touted Texas’ medical malpractice experiment as the solution for improving national health care. For example, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann held up Texas as a successful liability “pilot program” in an address in September, stating, “The state of Texas did a wonderful job of lawsuit reform and actually saw medical costs come down. We know it works.”
But most of the claims touting positive effects of the Texas law – which took effect in September 2003 and included a $250,000 per defendant liability cap – are flatly contradicted by the data.
By the measures commonly used to evaluate health care – such as cost, the uninsured rate, and access to care – Texas has regressed since its liability law took effect. Collectively, these measures show that Texas has one of the worst health care systems in the United States. Moreover, since 2003 Texas has either failed to improve or grown even worse compared to other states on almost every measure.
Since the liability laws took effect:
* The cost of health care in Texas (measured by per patient Medicare reimbursements) has increased at nearly double the national average;
* spending increases for diagnostic testing (measured by per patient Medicare reimbursements) have far exceeded the national average;
* the state’s uninsured rate has increased, remaining the highest in the country;
* the cost of health insurance in the state has more than doubled;
* growth in the number of doctors per capita has slowed; and
* the number of doctors per capita in underserved rural areas has declined.
http://www.citizen.org/documents/Texas_Liability_Limits.pdf
Comment:
By Don McCanne, MD
The malpractice system does not serve injured patients well. It needs to be reformed. It needs to be redesigned with incentives to reduce exposure to error, and to appropriately compensate patients when error does occur, all in a non-hostile environment that serves the interests of both patients (compensation for injury) and health care professionals (performance enhancement). This is not the topic of today’s message.
The Republican grandstanding has been sending a message calling for a blanket rejection of any reform advanced by the Democrats, and instead substituting the opening of insurance markets across state borders and the enactment of malpractice reform.
Since expanding insurance markets across state borders is not the topic of today’s message, we’ll quickly dismiss it as an unsound policy that would flood the market with less expensive underinsurance products that would fail to provide financial security for those who need health care. That is the worst possible way to expand health care coverage.
Regarding malpractice, when Republicans and some Democrats (except those beholden to trial attorneys) call for reducing health care spending through malpractice reform, they don’t really mean reform. They are merely calling for a cap on general damages (pain and suffering), such as the $250,000 cap enacted in Texas. They contend that this would reduce costs by eliminating excessive awards for “junk lawsuits,” and especially by reducing the pressure on physicians to order unnecessary tests. Many contend that the excess CYA testing is a major cause of our very high health care spending.
So what has happened in Texas after the cap was applied? Health care costs have increased at double the national average! Spending increases for diagnostic testing have far exceeded the national average! The cost of health insurance has more than doubled!
As an isolated policy, malpractice caps were ineffective in reducing spending and diagnostic testing in Texas. The issue of general damages needs to be addressed as part of a process leading to comprehensive malpractice reform, but it should be dismissed as the be all and end all for comprehensive health system reform.
The debate over malpractice should not distract us from our mission to support comprehensive reform that would ensure that absolutely everyone receives the health care that they need, under a financing system that eliminates the burden of medical debt. (Hint: a single payer national health program – an improved Medicare for all)