#18 — Bovine secretions!
malpractice costs
From the congressional budget office.
Here are current (2007) average malpractice premiums for US, by specialty. Family practice, 12,500. GPs, 7,500 Internists, 12,500. Ob/gyns, 55,000 Pediatricians, 12,500 All primary care: 17,500 . There are about 750,000 MDs in the country : a ballpark number for total malpractice premium costs is going to be (0.75 x 10 e 6) x (~2 e 4) = 15 billion. But that might be low – maybe specialists pay a lot more. Since total premiums were about 10 billion in 2000, let’s say that they’re paying 20 billion total now – that’s reasonable, since nothing I’ve seen suggests that rates have doubled over that period. We’re on the same page. . Total health care costs for the US passed 2 trillion (2 e 12) in 2006. Malpractice premiums account for about 1% of total healthcare costs.
There was certainly less than that in legal payout, so doubling anyway to be generous gives the 2%.
#16 — Malpractice may only be 2% of the costs, but that figure doesn’t include the added cost of defensive medicine, that is, doctors who order unnecessary tests to confirm things they already know in order to protect themselves from lawsuits.
As for defensive medicine, the only part I object to is the part that has low payoff. I don’t think anyone has been able to come with a decent estimate of those costs. As for the idea that any argument can be won by citing some unmeasurable factor – well, I’m not from Missouri, but I grew up near there.
