It is encouraging that President Barack Obama and congressional leaders seem serious about reforming our destructive medical-malpractice liability system (“Medical malpractice reform eyed in health care debate,” March 17). Such action would do wonders to lower health care costs and improve patient access to care.
The threat of a debilitating malpractice lawsuit causes 93 percent of all doctors to order more tests and procedures than are medically necessary. This wasteful practice of “defensive medicine” increases health care costs by more than $124 billion each year and adds 3.4 million Americans to the rolls of the uninsured.
Lawrence J. McQuillan, Director, Pacific Research Institute San Francisco
