Panel Says Medical Malpractice Cost Fears Are Overstated

According toMcClatchyDC, a recent report indicates that "curbingmedical malpracticelitigation isn't the 'silver bullet' that's needed to slay the werewolf of rising health care costs." The panelists of legal, medical, and economic experts organized from the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University said "politicians made points that were anecdotal rather than statistical and tended to make bloated claims about the negative impact of medical malpractice litigation on health care costs."

Politicoreported, "The bottom line is that malpractice tort reforms don't work as well as proponents say they do," said Kathy Zeiler, a Georgetown law professor and economist who has written extensively about malpractice reform. Zeiler pointed to studies on the effects of tort reforms over the last 30 years, saying the findings are conflicting and indicate only meager cost savings at best.