Both Symptom and Disease: Relating Medical Malpractice to Health-Care Costs

Abstract

Tort reformers blame the high cost of American health care on defensive responses to rampant medical malpractice litigation. Defenders of the tort system counter that holding health care providers liable for negligence improves safety and ensures compensation for injury. The relationship between medical malpractice and health care expenditures is more complex than either of these positions reflects. The existing medical malpractice system increases medical spending mainly because it has evolved in tandem with other inflationary features of the health care system and may make those features even more difficult to change. In other words, medical malpractice is both a symptom of a costly health care system and a costly disease in its own right.

The Impact of State Medical Malpractice Reform on Individual‐Level Health Care Expenditures

“…Given the limited and mixed findings in the literature, several commentators have called for further research on the relationship between state-level tort reforms and health spending (Hermer and Brody 2010;Studdert, Mello, and Brennan 2010;Grace and Leverty 2012;Sage 2012;Chirba and Noble 2013). The current study is a response to that call.…”