Blame the Lawyers

February 2, 2010 -- My friends on the Right love to blame the lawyers. Who doesn't?

In a 10/1/2009 article in the Los Angeles Times entitled Tort reform is the healthcare debate's frivolous sideshow, Michael Hiltzik writes:

You know the argument: Disgruntled patients, goaded on by unscrupulous lawyers, file frivolous malpractice lawsuits and walk off with millions of dollars in undeserved awards granted by teary-eyed jurors. Doctors respond by practicing "defensive medicine," ordering lots of unnecessary tests to cover their behinds. Bingo! Medical costs hit the stratosphere.
But then he goes on to dispel this myth.
The truth is that medical liability isn't a big driver of health costs... the cost of malpractice litigation, in court and through defensive medicine, [is] roughly 2% to 3% of all U.S. healthcare spending.
So the tort reform "talking point" is indeed a "frivolous sideshow." Instead, let's focus on where we can make real change.

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