Pajamas Media » Tort Reform Can Lower Costs Without Harming Health Care. So Why Isn’t It in Obama’s Plan?

Pajamas Media » Tort Reform Can Lower Costs Without Harming Health Care. So Why Isn’t It in Obama’s Plan?: "Many experts have pointed to tort reform as a key element of any effort to hold down the costs of health care:

Old Democratic presidential aspirant John Edwards won $175 million in judgments over a 12-year period suing doctors, hospitals and insurance companies, everyone but the candy stripers, over infant cerebral palsy cases allegedly caused by mishandled deliveries.

As the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists noted in a study in 2003, cerebral palsy could not be blamed on delivery trouble in the “vast majority” of cases.

Using bad science, Edwards enriched himself by bankrupting innocent physicians.

The effect is not restricted to insurance costs. Lawsuits cause doctors to run additional and possibly unessential procedures:"