GUEST COMMENTARY: Medical Malpractice Reform?
Monday, December 14, 2009
Editor’s Note: This is the third guest column from Leflar about health policy. Health care costs are through the roof, headed skyward. Why not pass “tort reform” to restrain them? Doctors gripe about a system forcing specialists in high-risk fields in some regions to pay huge sums for malpractice insurance. They run extra, expensive tests for fear of getting sued if they don’t. That inflates medical costs. Trial lawyers retort that many patients suffer harm from malpractice. The legal system, they say, compensates those patients and their families, and deters medical errors by making doctors more careful. Both sides are adamant. The debate’s polarized. Some facts might help. “To err is human,” and so are doctors and ...
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Opinion, Pages 5 on 12/14/2009
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