Tort Reform Doesn't Help Health Care Systems

Brooks Schuelke

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Texas Watch has recently released a new study that finds that states with no "tort reform" have better health care systems than those with "reform," The executive summary of the study reads:

In state after state, patients continue to be told that the silver bullet for improving healthcare is to enact severe and arbitrary limits on patient access to the legal system. The argument made by insurance and medical industry lobbyists is that, in essence, allowing the epidemic of medical errors to go unchecked by legal accountability will improve the quality of healthcare.
We set out to test this theory and determine if so-called tort "reform" corresponds to improvements in the healthcare system. Our investigation shows the opposite to be the case. Using data collected for a comprehensive state-by-state evaluation of healthcare by the non-profit, nonpartisan Commonwealth Fund, we have determined that states without caps on medical malpractice lawsuits tend to have better healthcare than those with these arbitrary limits.

This study is a prime example of the good work continuously done by Texas Watch, a non-partisan advocacy group that focuses on consumer, personal injury and insurance issues. When the insurance industry and big business are spending millions of dollars lobbying the Texas legislature to look out for their own interests, Texas Watch is one of the few groups looking out for the little guy.

For more information on Tort Reform, please review our Tort Reform section.