Tort reform

Tort reform is fundamentally unfair. It restricts or denies justice to people and families of those who have suffered injury or death at the hands of members of one profession. At the same time, it does not impose such restrictions on people hurt by other means.

For example, someone who suffers permanent debilitating injuries because of a careless driver on a highway should not have access to preferential legal redress over someone who suffers permanent debilitating injuries due to a doctor’s negligence. However, supporters of tort reform advocate that doctors and hospitals should get extra protections, while injured patients should have restrictions imposed by Congress on their legal right to sue.

Some have argued that tort reform is needed because it will cut health-care costs. However statistics show that the effects of malpractice payments and doctors practicing “defensive medicine” amounts to only less than 1% of overall health-care costs in the United States. Further, it has been consistently shown that imposing caps on medical-maplractice damages will not significantly reduce the number oflawsuits or sustain the number of medical providers in a state.