Susan Sheridan, whom I wrote about last month, is even more famous. She and her son Cal who has kernicterus syndrome are the hook for a piece in The New Republic by Robert Berenson. (You may only be able to get to the first page…) It largely tells the truth about malpractice, but just to reiterate, my reading of the data is that:

1) The tort system only picks up about half of malpractice2) The medical system barely ever apologizes (Susan never got an apology), but when it does law suits are much less likely3) Too much of the money goes to lawyers and expert witnesses, and lawyers and Democrats don’t want to change that, but as they don’t hold power–so what.4) Doctors, whose Republican allies now do hold power, are only interested in reducing caps on damages, which may reduce their rates a bit but does nothing to help severely injured victims of malpractice and more importantly nothing much to reduce medical costs for the rest of us. (I live in California where we have the MICRA caps and my insurance premiums ain’t going down — sufficient proof to me that the Republican talking points about this are bunk).5) Defensive medicine makes the system and the doctors more money and until they stop getting paid for it, the whole "8-10% savings" concept is a myth6) Special courts, non-binding arbitration, apologies, openness, and a near-miss reporting system are all good ideas and are the eventual solution, but the AMA won’t back them, and their Republican allies won’t either. Why not? For them tort reform has nothing to do with patients, and not much to do with doctors, but much, much more to do with stopping what are mostly legitimate lawsuits against malfeasant corporations — and it’s much better if that all gets mixed up with an evil lawyer suing Marcus Welby MD in their PR campaign.

So unless there is some real concession from organized medicine, we’ll keep what we’ve got and it doesn’t work.  The "good" news is that it’s only a minor issue compared to the complete morass of the rest of the health care system.

(Hat-tip to Brian Klepper for the article)