Health care costs up 19% 4 years after Ohio passes tort reform

[ck4829]

As the House of Representatives prepares to vote Sunday on a package that Democrats say will make health care more affordable, critics insist the "big government takeover of health care" is not only unwarranted, but that a part of the solution is so obvious it's a crime Democrats failed to embrace it.

It's called tort reform, or putting the brakes on junk lawsuits. If doctors and hospitals don't need to worry about defending themselves against baseless malpractice lawsuits, they'll stop ordering needless, duplicative tests and halt the practice of defensive medicine, Republican congressional leaders say. It's an easy and necessary way to bring down costs for all Americans, they say.

The problem is, Ohio has already taken that step, as have many other states. Yet five years after a difficult but successful fight in Columbus to pass tort reform, health-care costs in the state have not gone down. And health policy analysts say it may not be possible to say whether costs would have spiked even higher had Ohio not passed lawsuit reform.

Costs climbed even after the legislature limited the size of jury verdicts for pain and suffering to $250,000 except in catastrophic cases, restricted punitive damages, and made it tougher to take a case to trial. In 2004, the year Ohio passed lawsuit liability reform, average premiums for employer-based family health plans were $9,590, according to data from the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. By 2008, average family premiums were $11,425.

This means that four years after the state passed reform, health insurance for Ohio families in employer plans had gone up by 19 percent.

http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2010/03/ohios_tort_reform_law_hasnt_lo.html

[Cirque du So-What]

1. Another RW talking point bites the dust

If the day arrives when criminals in white coats can commit atrocities against their patients and skate away without repercussion, I'll be getting my healthcare in Costa Rica - and unlike gasbag Limbosevic, I actually mean it.

[theoldman]

2. Texas instituted tort reform when Bush was governor.

It reduced the insurance premiums for doctors and made them richer. Tort reform did not change anything in our health care system. There were no savings to patients.

[TexasObserver]

3. Health care insurance and costs have skyrocketed since Texas passed "tort reform."

"Tort reform" is nothing but a marketing slogan that stands for absolving negligent parties of their responsibility by making it difficult for claimants to hold them accountable, and even then, to cut off their damages.

Remember that caps don't affect any case that is without merit. It only hurts the seriously harmed plaintiffs.

[safeinOhio]

4. The other "great Republican" idea is

allow crossing state lines to buy insurance. We did this with credit card companies back in the 80s, to reduce rates. Rates went from under 8% to 29%. Well, that sure worked out.
Their best 2 ideas on health care. 1, don't get sick. 2, die quickly.