Medical Malpractice Payments Sunk to Record Low in
2011
Skyrocketing Healthcare
Costs and Rampant Medical Errors Discredit the Promises Put Forth by Advocates
of Tort Reform
July
11, 2012 —
By almost
any measure, medical malpractice payments were at their lowest level on record
in 2011, a new Public Citizen report shows. Both the number of medical
malpractice payments made on behalf of doctors and the inflation-adjusted value
of such payments were at their lowest levels since 1991, the earliest full year
in which the government collected such data. But, contrary to the promises of
policy makers and leaders of physician groups who have spent the past two
decades championing efforts to restrict patients’ legal rights, there is no
evidence that patients have received any benefits—economic or otherwise—in
exchange for ceding access to legal remedies. Instead, the evidence suggests
that malpractice victims, taxpayers, and ordinary patients are almost certainly
bearing significant costs for uncompensated medical errors. Read the report.