Some lawmakers weren't satisfied with a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office in October that estimated savings of $54 billion over the next decade if new limits were imposed on medical malpractice lawsuits.
So they asked CBO officials to explain the figure -- and received a letter from CBO Director Douglas W. Elmendorf reaffirming the $54 billion in savings and an even larger impact from tort reform over the next 10 years.
The CBO previously estimated that tort reform would lower malpractice costs nationwide by about 6%. But now, CBO estimates a reduction in malpractice costs by 10%, if a package of tort reforms was implemented nationwide. Those reforms include a $250,000 cap on damages for pain and suffering, a $500,000 cap on punitive damages, and restricting the statute of limitations on malpractice claims, according to a Legal Newsline article. None of the reforms have been included in the House and Senate health care proposals.
"CBO's estimates of the likely effects of tort reform are based on research that links changes in malpractice costs to changes in health care spending, including not only the spending changes caused by providers' responses to changes in the medical liability environment but also the spending changes resulting from associated changes in health status," Elmendorf concluded in the letter to U.S. Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV.
"With all of those factors taken into account, the weight of evidence indicates that tort reform would reduce the utilization of health care services and, thereby, spending."