Tort reform will do little to curb healthcare costs

During the healthcare reform debates of 2009, there were angry confrontations that nothing in the legislation would address rising healthcare costs.

Many believe that the only way to address costs is through tort reform, because the unnecessary tests and procedures brought on by the threat of lawsuits is the driver of escalating costs. The final bill passed without such legislation, but Republicans in Congress have brought new legislation to the floor that again brings Tort reform to the forefront.
 
Given the experience Texas has had with tort reform, it is difficult to believe that medical malpractice awards play a large role in our soaring healthcare costs.

Despite implementing tort reform in 2003, which limited awards on pain and suffering to $250,000, Texas has some of the highest healthcare costs in the nation. Indeed, a 2009 article by Atul Gawande in the New Yorker documented that McAllen Texas, one of the poorest cities in Texas, was one of the most expensive healthcare markets in the country.

I would like to put forward another explanation for rising healthcare costs. Namely, the tests and procedures that are ordered unnecessarily because providers are reimbursed by the services they perform, with few questions asked. As long as insurance or Medicare covers the costs, the patients ask, “why not have it done?” One survey showed that only 11 percent of patients actually asked their doctor about costs.

In our “more must be better” society, there is little incentive for the patient to refuse treatment. Until patients, not the insurance companies or Medicare, become the consumer, costs will continue to rise.

Tort reform will only hurt the poor who will be without legal representation because there would be little for lawyers to gain from lost wages and medical expenses due to injury. If we really want a free market in healthcare, get rid of the middlemen and make the patient the consumer.