Hatch says tort reform could pare health costs

Sen. Orrin Hatch says he's figured out a way to cut health-care costs in America by a half-percent immediately — and the Congressional Budget Office agreed with him on Friday.

At the request of Hatch, the office did a study that figured some long-proposed curbs on medical malpractice lawsuits would save the country about a half-percent of its overall health-care spending a year, or about $11 billion in 2009.

The Budget Office also said it figures such changes could reduce government spending on such programs as Medicare and Medicaid by $41 billion over 10 years and reduce budget deficits by $54 billion over that same time period.

"I think this response from the CBO confirms that there is a growing problem regarding the costs of health-care lawsuits," Hatch said.

The Budget Office looked at the effect of such things as capping lawsuit awards, holding a party responsible for only its "fair share" of an injury instead of potentially the full cost and shortening statutes of limitation.

The office said enacting such changes would lower the malpractice insurance premiums paid by doctors, and in turn, lower the fees paid by patients.

The Budget Office also said the changes would indirectly lower overall costs "by reducing the use of diagnostic tests and other health-care services when providers recommend those services principally to reduce their potential exposure to lawsuits."

Hatch has long called for such malpractice law reform, but most Democrats — including President Barack Obama — have contended that it would have minimal impact on health-care costs.

Hatch said the Budget Office's findings are "an important step in the right direction, and these numbers show that the problem deserves more than lip service from policy makers. Unfortunately, up to now, that has been all the president and his Democratic allies in Congress have been willing to provide on these issues."

Hatch is a member of the Senate Finance Committee, which is scheduled to vote next week on its version of health-care reform — which Hatch has said does little with malpractice reform.

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