Excessive medical liability litigation contributes to higher health costs by prompting American physicians to unnecessarily prescribe drugs and other treatments.

Any serious effort to bring American healthcare costs in line with other developed countries must consider the enormous disparity in medical liability costs between the United States and all other developed countries.

American doctors perform tests and prescribe treatments merely to protect themselves from possible litigation because of the excesses of America’s medical liability system. Unnecessary treatment and procedures caused by “defensive” medicine puts patients at risk and depletes precious healthcare resources that could be better spent on patients who need care.

Patient safety and the quality of care are undermined by a medical liability system that, through fear of litigation, discourages the reporting and discussion of adverse events or medical errors. It is believed that as many as 95% of adverse events go unreported.

Americans spend a far greater proportion of their GDP on tort than most countries and nearly 3 times as much as Canadians. One leading study estimates that reasonable limits on non-economic losses, such as those that are in place in California, could save $70 to $126 billion in healthcare costs per year.

Any serious effort to bring American healthcare costs in line with other developed countries must consider the enormous disparity in medical liability costs between the United States and all other developed countries.