Such proposals attack individual rights and protect wrongdoers. Medical liability is a powerful deterrent to incompetent care. Medical malpractice premiums amount to less than 1 percent of national health care costs, according to the U.S. Congressional Budget Office. Eliminating medical liability altogether would thus do little to contain health care costs.
Medical malpractice is actually the most profitable line of insurance written nationwide.
Medical malpractice claims, which are extremely expensive to prosecute, do not clog our courts. Only 7 percent of all tort claims in 1992 involved any type of professional malpractice, including medical negligence, according to the National Center for State Courts. Since 1985, the rate of claims has declined at an average annual rate of 8.9 percent, according to a 1992 American Medical Association publication. A 1995 U.S. Department of Justice study analyzing civil jury cases in the nation's 75 most populous counties found that plaintiffs won approximately 30 percent of the 1,362 medical malpractice cases filed in the 12-month study period. Punitive damages were awarded in 13 of these 403 successful cases.