The solution would be addressing what drives the lawsuits. Yes, sometimes a victim really wants to screw the doctor, but most suits are out of fear of costs to be incurred in the future for the mistake that was made. The lawsuit provides a mechanism to get the capital needed to address those costs. Develop another source of capital and much of the suits will go down.
Compensating a victim of medical malpractice, it’s almost inpossible to know how much compensation $$$ should be awarded without determining the facts of the case. So as along as tort reform doesn’t mess with that, and only punitive, I’d be okay with that. What does irritate me is the lack of disciplinary measures toward doctors who are consistantly negligent. Punitive damages are awarded by the court as a punishment because the court knows nothing (or it would be rare) will happen to the doc for being negligible. The old saying that a “mechanic has to fix their mistakes and a doctor buries them” is true. If a cap would be limited to $500,000, is that punishment enough? How about $500,000 and probation of license to practice?