Last night Obama mentioned it that shall not be named by liberal Democrats: malpractice liability reform. Malpractice reform is not "a silver bullet," he said, "but I have talked to enough doctors to know that defensive medicine may be contributing to unnecessary costs." He wants to "move forward on a range of ideas about how to put patient safety first and let doctors focus on practicing medicine." Specifically, he referred to Bush administration proposals for "demonstration projects" in a few states to try to contain costs from bad medicine and expensive liability trials.
Presumably he was referring to proposals offered by the Institute of Medicine at the behest of Tommy Thompson, HHS secretary under Bush, to consider no-fault, nonjudicial compensation systems for patients harmed by medical mistakes.
But Mr. President, there already is a demonstration program on malpractice reform, and it has demonstrated some very impressive results. In New Zealand, court cases involving medical malpractrice are virtually nonexistent. Anybody who believes s/he has been injured by a doctor submits a claim to a no-fault insurance panel. The case is decided by medical experts, not a lay jury.
Cases are resolved in weeks or months, not years. There are no junk lawsuits. There are no huge awards to trial lawyers. Without judges, juries, court clerks, trial lawyers' staffs etc., administrative costs for malpractice awards in New Zealand are less than 10 percent, according to a piece three years ago in Health Affairs. In the U.S. they're over 50 percent. And malpractice insurance premiums for docs are less than $1,000 per year, even for obstetricians and neurosurgeons, said the Health Affairs article.
Critics note that patient safety in New Zealand is no better than in other countries. I would reverse this by saying it's no worse, either. Even without the threat of disastrous lawsuits overhanging their daily practice, New Zealand docs seem to be delivering the same standard of care as in other developed nations.
So there you have it. No need for any further demonstrations stateside. Obama is right that malpractice reform isn't a silver bullet. But that's not a reason not to move forward.