Lawsuits are not limiting access to health care. The U.S. General Accounting Office found, after an extensive investigation, that doctors’ groups have misled, fabricated evidence, or, at the very least, wildly overstated their case about how malpractice insurance problems have limited access to health care. The only health care access problems that GAO could confirm were isolated and the result of factors having nothing at all to do with the legal system.
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE: Implications of Rising Premiums on Access to Health Care
Center for Justice & Democracy letter to the American Medical Association regarding the GAO study above.
Medical malpractice costs are a tiny percentage of overall health care expenditures. Medical malpractice insurance and claims costs represent, at most, only 2 percent of overall health care spending in this country, according to both the Congressional Budget Office and the General Accounting Office.
President Uses Dubious Statistics on Costs of Malpractice Lawsuits