Parsy,
Please identify where in the paper you linked is the examination of how the cost of defending against these lawsuits - both in terms of extra preemptive tests and actual legal fees - is accounted for. The article appears to only be in regard to malpractice insurance.
I see the connection, but find it much less than comprehensive with respect to tort reform.
On page 29, you will find a chart which provides both he amount of yearly malpractice premiums and the related payouts to victims and lawyers.
Victims’ lawyers pay is in included in the payouts. Defense lawyers would be included in the premiums. Most of the insurance companies’ income is missing because I do not think investment income is included. Insurance companies try to string out settlements as long as possible, usually settling the day before trial. This increases insurance company’s profit and payout to defense lawyers.
Re: defensive medicine costs, I am sure there are some, but there appear to be no good studies on how much. I have seen estimates range from $100 billion to $200 billion, and 10% or $240 billion. There seems to be some problem figuring out how much of the extra tests are because of fear of lawyers, and how much is by doctors to pad the bill.
For egs, the extra c-sections are often blamed on John Edwards, however as one article pointed out, Medicare pays an extra $5,000 for c-sections, private insurance even more. So are doctors doing them for fear of evil lawyers, or for the extra five grand?
In the article I linked above, there is another link to a New Yorker article, “gawande”. Go to that and a Texas lawyer admits its not the lawyers, its the extra money.
If lawyers get 40% of $4.5 billion, that about $2 billion for the greedy lawyers. If doctors order $240 billion in extra test, that’s well,. . .$240 billion for the health care industry. Do the math. Read the link.
parsy, who reports, and let’s you decide
parsy, who says work
Here’s another link you may find interesting. $60 billion per year in medicare fraud. That would be about 30 times the $2 billion in greedy lawyer payouts.
http://www.law.uh.edu/healthlaw/perspectives/2009/(CC)%20Heat.pdf
parsy, who says they found at least 53 greedy doctors in Detroit