Here's an article about it: http://washingtonindependent.com/55535/tort-reform-unlikely-to-cut-health-care-costs Republicans want to limit doctors' liability to malpractice claims, saying these drive the cost of healthcare up. This article says malpractice suits may cause 1 to 2% of medical costs.

Id rather they didnt practice on me, screw up, then get away with it. Malpractice costs account for less than 2 percent. The available evidence suggests that premiums have risen both because insurance companies have faced increased costs to pay claims (from growth in malpractice awards) and because of reduced income from their investments and short-term factors in the insurance market. I believe if someone is harmed by the actions of a physician or other medical professional they deserves to be compensated by the injuring party (The doctor).

Limit what insurance companies can charge for premiums would be a much better idea.

I am not sure how many people remember the Pinto. A car that was badly designed with an unprotected rear gas tank. The manufacture knew fairly early on that the car would kill people who were hit from behind, even in minor impacts. They figured the cost of paying lawsuits versus the profit they were making from the car and decided the death costs were acceptable. Despicable eh? Malpractice suits account for less than 1% to 2% of medical costs. The real champions of tort reform are the medical lobby folks who want to be able to have a reliable number, a cap so they can make more profit. Let's talk about real reform. Most malpractice is caused by a small number of doctors who are never sanctioned. Nothing is being done to crack down on the 5 percent of doctors (1 of 20) are responsible for 54 percent of malpractice payouts. Let's take away the licenses of those docs. n 1999, the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences, found that medical errors cause between 44,000-98,000 deaths in hospitals each year. Even when using the lower estimate, deaths due to medical errors exceed the number attributable to the 8th leading cause of death. More die in a given year as a result of medical errors than from motor vehicle accidents (43,458), breast cancer (42,297) or AIDS (16,516). That's just the folks who die. Many more are left with permanent disabilities due to negligence. Is their justice for them in tort reform? None that I can see.

Whenever you hear the words "Tort Reform", you should plug your ears and go "La, la, la! I'm not listening!"...because 'Tort Reform' is Bulls**t. Something like 90% of the civil cases (torts) in US courts are corporations suing other corporations. Yet almost every proposal for 'tort reform' involves that remaining 10%, and those 'reforms' are always about limiting how much individual claimants can receive in damages from the professional or corporate entities that harmed those individuals. 'Tort reform' is just another power grab by our Corporatist Kleptocracy. http://www.conservativenannystate.org/cns.html#7

medical malpractice insurances cost 1% or so of total health care costs. $25 billion a year is cheap!!! sure, some people see it as a lottery, the potential to win big bucks from oppressive wealthy interests. i think that punitive damages go to the wrong person. they ought to be awarded to a community chest whose principal is used to better society, not enrich the victim or survivor. attorneys fees ought to be capped. juries ought to award damages based on actuarial costs (say $100,000 a year nursing home = $2 million x 5% versus irrational figures, say $100,000 x 72 = $7.2 million). the problem with tort law in health care is that it does 2 things - (1) doctors order tests and procedures that aren't really necessary but their defense attorney will look at them and be glad they were ordered because it shows due diligence. these "unnecessary" costs total $350 billion a year. GETTING OUR ARMS AROUND THAT MONSTER WOULD BE A GREAT ASSET AND TORT LAW REFORM IS ONE WAY. (2) doctors fear lawsuits, so, they hide their mistakes. they don't tell their partners and, soon, their partner commits the same mistake, killing someone. these times of medical errors cost us another $165 billion and 100,000 lives each year. what if we all could anonymously learn from our own and others' mistakes? i suggest that tort law isn't all that significant, but, it leads to creating one of the biggest costs of health care - practice of defensive medicine and medical errors.