Health Care BS pointed out (“Medical Malpractice Caps Work“) that the New York Times has, in at least one case, not published any. Instead, they published a story about Texas medmal situation after tort reform. While there is debate over how much of the new increase in doctor immigration into the state is due to the tort reform, there seems to be a (reluctant in some cases) consensus that it is at least in part responsible and that the increase is long-term, not simply a “spike.”
I couldn’t get the HCBS link to work, but I found the NY Times article through the google news search. Here it is: “More Doctors in Texas After Malpractice Caps.” I have read about Texas before but one detail I had somehow missed and/or forgotten was that the caps were put in place through a state constitutional amendment. I think that is important to understand the dramatic result: there is little or no fear that the law will be thrown out by a judge. Other states have implemented tort reform through the legislature. While the worsening of the situation has slowed down or stop, those states haven’t always seen the dramatic decrease in the medical malpractice insurance rates or some other obvious improvement. This is probably because people are still living in fear that the caps won’t be allowed to cap anything.
This just in: As I’m writing this I notice that the Wall Street Journal’s Health Blog just posted a piece, “After Texas Caps Malpractice, Doctors Move In.”
