TORT REFORM is CRUCIAL.
I know of DOCTORS whose NET PAY is equal to the INSURANCE they pay out so that their ENTIRE LIVIHOOD is not stripped from them by a lawsuit imposed over a matter that could not be helped.
Doctors get sued because they did not do appropriate tests, so they OVERTEST to avoid LAWSUITS and the COSTS GO UP!
I wonder how many LAWYERs would still be in practice if they had to carry personal liability insurance that hit ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS PER YEAR and up.
EIGHTY THOUSAND DOLLARS in not unusual.
Imagine how not having to carry such ridiculous amounts of insurance would IMPACT costs? And hospitals...where ONE HALF of the neurosurgeons, and ONE THIRD of the bone surgeons, and ONE HALF of the emergency room doctors etc. etc and those are ACCURATE NUMBERS across our nation....can YOU IMAGINE how costs would drop if this were not the norm.
Would you want to have to carry massive insurance because ONE THIRD of the folks in your profession were SUED EACH YEAR? Or ONE HALF?
Forget about it.
It has gotten crazy.
Lawyers are LIVING off of DOCTORS and that is PERVERTED.
Well then, California should be a medical utopia given the limitations imposed by MICRA. Let me assure you it is not. The anecdotes you cite aren’t data. Read Tom Baker’s book on medical malpractice costs, and the actual statistics will confound your argument. There is no real med mal litigation epidemic going on. Only a fraction of patients sue, and a much smaller fraction of plaintiffs win. Most cases are tossed at the MSJ stage, and most verdicts are in the doc’s favor.