Health Care and the Tort Tax

Two excellent editorials in the Tribune the last couple of days that suggest a couple of ways to give consumers more choice and quality in their health care at a lower cost---quality of care and price-transparency and pay for performance.

And here's another pernicious side-effect that would be minimized. The American Spectator:

Which leads to the second question: what's motivating the trial lawyers? It is really easing others' suffering, or is it just another case of fattening one's own wallet?

That so-called "jackpot justice" is a cash cow on today's society is hardly a moot point. One study has found that America's trial lawyers generate about $46 billion annually, with revenue growing more than 11% a year -- nearly triple the rate of growth in the nation's domestic product. A recent report by the Manhattan Institute finds that medical malpractice liability now accounts for one-tenth of America's "tort tax," which each year costs a family of four more than $3,300.

So let's cut off the ambulance chasers who raise costs for the rest of us and look at alternatives to improve our health care. Improved choice, better quality and accountability are a prescription for success.