Freedom Line Blog

There has been a great deal of debate over the relationship between tort reform (capping non-economic damages in lawsuits) and health care.

Well, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has provided some research to support the notion that tort reform would actually cut health care costs and reduce the budget deficit.

According to the CBO:

[I]mplementing a typical package of tort reform proposals nationwide would reduce total U.S. health care spending by about 0.5 percent (about $11 billion in 2009). That figure is the sum of a direct reduction in spending of 0.2 percent from lower medical liability premiums and an additional indirect reduction of 0.3 percent from slightly less utilization of health care services….  Enacting a typical set of proposals would reduce federal budget deficits by roughly $54 billion over the next 10 years, according to estimates by CBO and the staff of the Joint Committee of Taxation.”