Defensive medicine worsens patient care and raises costs
Health care in the United States costs too much, and it doesn’t look like that’s going to change. Recent health care reform legislation doesn’t take any meaningful steps towards reducing or controlling costs. In fact, it explicitly forbids states from trying to curtail the costs of malpractice litigation in any way that would reduce lawyers’ fees.
How does a fear of lawsuits increase costs? The most direct way is …