It would seem that America’s healthcare system has bifurcated into two separate, but related predicaments. The first, healthcare suffers an alarmingly high rate of medical errors that lead to lawsuits. Second, the malpractice liability structures have continually operated at a less than satisfactory level. In a 1999 study, the Institute of Medicine, approximated that nearly 98,000 patients died yearly from mistakes occurring during inpatient hospital stays. Shamefully, most of the mistakes were completely avoidable. For the last two decades, this problem has been growing. Howard H. Hiatt, a Harvard University Public Health expert, once stated that the unstable atmosphere surrounding medical-malpractice, litigation, and liability insurance within America’s healthcare system will reach crisis level. Well, here it is.
The debate rages on as to which one of the two issues has caused the most problems. Are the costly mistakes that doctors, nurses, hospitals, and other institutions the root of the problem? Or is it that medical personnel are so fearful of being sued that they pass along the cost of high liability premiums to patients?
The media would spout that an overwhelming number of malpractice claims are filed each year, but in reality, when patients suffered harm, lawsuits were filed less than two percent of the time. Malpractice insurance does indeed cost medical professionals quite a chunk of change and health care spending increases because of insurance claims. Some states have passed legislature that protects medical personnel from extraneous lawsuits and limits the amount of money a claimant can sue for. There is indication that insurance premiums rise at a much slower rate in these states than in others without legislation. Still, costs are climbing and Americans are paying for it.
