Vermont & New Hampshire Injury Blog

Medical Malpractice Epidemic Persists Even as Compensation to Victims Decreases Part II

For Part I click here

The cost of the medical malpractice liability system - if measured broadly by adding all malpractice insurance premiums - fell to less than 0.6 percent of the $2.1 trillion in total national health care costs in 2006, the most recent year for which the necessary data to make such comparisons are available. The cost of actual malpractice payments fell to 0.18 percent - one-fifth of 1 percent - of all health care costs in 2006. Annual malpractice payments have subsequently fallen from $3.9 billion in 2006 to $3.6 billion in 2008, but comparative data on total health care costs are not available.

"Any way you measure it, medical liability accounts for less than 1 percent of the country's health care costs, and the vast majority of victims receive no compensation whatsoever," said David Arkush, director of Public Citizen's Congress Watch division. "These are people who died or were left with serious permanent injuries - out of work, with enormous medical costs for the rest of their lives - and they and their families are getting nothing from the doctors and hospitals responsible."

The relatively small amount paid out for medical malpractice generally goes to patients with the most serious injuries. More than 80 percent of the money paid out for medical malpractice in 2008 was for cases involving "significant permanent injuries"; "major permanent injuries"; injuries resulting in quadriplegia, brain damage or the need for permanent care; or death, according to NPDB reporting.

to be continued. . .