Las Vegas NowCan Tort Reform Lower Healthcare Costs?

Can Tort Reform Lower Healthcare Costs?

Congressman Dean Heller of Nevada is well-informed on what's in the healthcare reform proposals which have come out of the House. He had a hand in some of the amendments.

I got the chance to interview Congressman Heller.  He told me that tort reform (restricting malpractice awards) is a great way to reduce healthcare costs. This is a common reason cited by doctors, too.

But my research found otherwise.  I compiled some information for the Congressman, and I thought I'd pass it along in a HealthNotes edition.

Lowering malpractice insurance premiums seems like a very fair thing to do for doctors, but it apparently does nothing to bring everyone else's costs down.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/columnists/jlanders/stories/DN-Landers_21bus.State.Edition1.9be351.html

Doctors in Texas are happy, and they're saving money on malpractice insurance premiums, but healthcare costs have not come down. Is it possible that doctors over-treat not as "defensive medicine" but as a way to make more money? You decide!

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/06/01/090601fa_fact_gawande

A doctor concludes that overtreatment is one of the main culprits in rising healthcare costs.

http://www.dartmouthatlas.org/interactive_map.shtm

An interesting interactive map of healthcare costs from the Dartmouth Institute, based on Medicare expenditures as a measure of overall healthcare costs (because no one else keeps better records).  Note the cost of healthcare in Clark County, NV, too.

http://www.aarpmagazine.org/health/health_care_costs.html

AARP examines some of the causes for high healthcare costs.