CBO Confirms: Medical Malpractice Reform Would Cut Health Care Costs, Reduce Deficit Partisan Democrat Health Bills Fail to Address High Costs of Junk Lawsuits

Washington, D.C. – A report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office(CBO) today confirms that real reform to reduce frivolous medical lawsuits would cut healthcare costs and trim the deficit. Unfortunately, of the five partisan Democrat health care billsapproved by committees in the Senate and House of Representatives, not one includesreforms to the country’s flawed medical liability system.

“If we’re going to get serious about actually making health care more affordable, weneed to reduce the number of junk lawsuits. Junk lawsuits are increasing health care costsfor millions of Americans, but Democrats have refused to address this critical issue in any oftheir bills. The Democrats’ bills are actually going to increase health care costs for manyAmericans,” said Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.).

“CBO has confirmed that meaningful malpractice reform would cut costs and reducethe deficit. It’s time to listen to the American people and enact real medical malpracticereform.”

According to CBO, enacting medical malpractice reform would cut health care costsby significantly reducing malpractice insurance premiums, which get passed onto patients inthe form of higher costs. Reform would also curb the practice of defensive medicine, in whichdoctors order wasteful tests and treatments to cover liabilities. Reform would save 41 billionin taxpayer dollars spent on federal health care programs, like Medicare and Medicaid, andwould reduce the deficit by $54 billion over the first ten years.

The CBO report is available here: http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/106xx/doc10641/10-09-Tort_Reform.pdf.

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