Malpractice Lawsuits ...

Malpractice lawsuits are a problem with the current medical system.

I don't know that I think they are as big a problem as other people do, but they are certainly there, and they raise the cost of medical care significantly.

The problem is that, whatever you do, you are going to open the door for people to abuse some privilage.

If you allow malpractice lawsuits, you create an environment in which people will inevitably sue frivolously. This has led to doctors being required to have malpractice lawsuit insurance, which drives up the cost of care.

If, on the other hand, you do not allow malpractice lawsuits, or restrict them in some way, you create an environment in which malpractice will happen more than it already does.

Not all malpractice lawsuits are frivolous, and not all cases of malpractice become lawsuits.

Forced to make the choice, I would choose a world in which malpractice lawsuits are allowed than one in which they are not. That said, here is the way I feel we could get around having to make a universal choice one way or the other. Let doctors choose whether or not they want malpractice insurance. Do not make malpractice insurance manditory. This will allow the doctor to choose between one set of advantages and disadvantages and another. Both courses of action have good and bad points. One lowers the cost of practicing, allowing doctors to lower their fees, but is riskier. One raises the cost, but is safer. There will be doctors who choose each, and there will be patients who choose to go to each type of doctor. There are two final details to this plan that I would address. The first is that the doctors without the malpractice insurance should not be subject to multi million dollar lawsuits. There should be a limit to how much someone can ask of a non insured doctor. It should be high enough to scare the doctor and help the patient if things go wrong, but not these immensely high numbers. Off the top of my head, I would say about $50 to $100 thousand. The second is that lawsuits must be directed at the appropriate person. A hospital might be reluctant to allow an uninsured doctor in private practice to practice or perform tests in its building, so the hospital must not be liable for a private doctor's actions. Similarly, I don't know that an individual nurse or doctor working in a hospital should be able to be individually sued, because they are employees. This is the most I would do about malpractice lawsuits. I think it would help address the problems of frivolous lawsuits without creating an atmosphere which allows for the much more dangerous problem of malpractice.