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ATLA to President Bush: You’re Doing a Heckuva Job Misleading the American People
Today’s Attack on Civil Justice System from Bush Latest in String of Falsehoods

(Monday, May 22, 2006 -Washington DC)—Like a jack-in-the-box repeatedly springing up to spout nonsense, President George W. Bush today again blamed so-called “junk lawsuits” for rising health care costs, despite a mountain of evidence – from sources ranging from the Congressional Budget Office to the Harvard School of Public Health – showing Bush’s claim to demonstrably false.

In response, Ken Suggs, President of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA), issued the following statement:

“This is the same President who told us there were WMD in Iraq, no one could have predicted the levee breaks in New Orleans, and his oil industry buddies aren’t price-gouging the American people -- and on this issue of lawsuits and health care, he has the same credibility: Zilch.

“It’s not a difference of opinion, there’s not a single fact that supports the president’s rhetoric – either he’s as ill-informed as late night comedians would have you believe or he’s willfully misleading the American public again.

“Maybe he should tap the phones at the Harvard School of Public Health -- he'd hear straight from the source that he's wrong.”

Background

Harvard School of Public Health: “Study Casts Doubt on Claims That the Medical Malpractice System Is Plagued By Frivolous Lawsuits.”[1] A new study[2] conducted by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital has found that most malpractice claims are meritorious, with 97 percent of claims involving medical injury. The results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, led the researchers to conclude that, “portraits of a malpractice system that is stricken with frivolous litigation are overblown.” The study found that eighty percent of claims involving physical injuries resulted in major disability or death. However, only 56 percent of all claimants received compensation. Of all injury claims, 63 percent were found to be the result of medical error. The researchers found that one in six claimants whose injuries were caused by medical error did not receive any compensation. Non-payment of claims where error was involved occurred more often that payment for injuries where error was not apparent.

• Lead Author of the Study: Findings “Cast Doubt” on Argument that “Malpractice System is Inundated with Groundless Lawsuits.” “Some critics have suggested that the malpractice system is inundated with groundless lawsuits, and that whether a plaintiff recovers money is like a random ‘lottery,’ virtually unrelated to whether the claim has merit,” said lead author David Studdert, associate professor of law and public health at HSPH. “These findings cast doubt on that view by showing that most malpractice claims involve medical error and serious injury, and that claims with merit are far more likely to be paid than claims without merit.”[3]

AMA Statistics Show that the Number of Doctors – Including OB/GYNs – in the U.S. is Actually Increasing. According to the most recent statistics from the American Medical Association, the number of physicians in the United States is actually increasing:

• The Overall Number of Physicians in the United States has Increased. According to data from the American Medical Association, the number of physicians in the United States is up more than 40 percent since 1990 – from 615,421 to 884,974 in 2004.[4] Over the same time period, the total U.S. population increased by only 18 percent – from 248.7 million in 1990 to an estimate of 293.9 million in 2004.[5]
• The Number of Emergency Physicians in United States has Nearly Doubled Since 1990. The number of emergency room doctors has nearly doubled from 14,243 in 1990 to 27,864 in 2004.[6]
• The Number of Neurosurgeons in United States has Increased. The number of neurosurgeons has increased by more than 20 percent – from 4,358 in 1990 to 5,288 in 2004.[7]
• The Number of OB/GYNs has Increased in United States. The number of OB-GYNs has increased by nearly 25 percent – from 33,697 in 1990 to 42,059 in 2004[8] – despite the fact that the number of birth in the United States has declined 2 percent between 1990 and 2003 (the most recent year where national statistics are available).[9]

Payouts in Medical Malpractice Cases Have Dropped Over Last Four Years; The Number of Payments Over $1 Million Has Dropped 56 Percent Since 1991. According to a 2005 study [10] by Public Citizen, malpractice payouts have remained flat for more than a decade and have actually dropped over the last four years. Among the finding of the study, which looked medical malpractice payout trends between 1991 and 2004:

• The number of malpractice payments paid on behalf of doctors fell 13.6 percent between 2001 and 2004.
• Adjusted for inflation, malpractice payments saw an average annual increase of only 0.8 percent between 1991 and 2004.
• Adjusted for inflation, the median payment from judgments grew from $125,000 in 1991 to $146,000 in 2004 – only a 1.2 percent average annual increase
• The percentage of payments over $1 million dropped from 2.25 percent in 1991 to just 1 percent in 2004. Adjusted for inflation, this represents a 56 percent drop.

The Government Accountability Office: Malpractice Cases Have Not Widely Affected Access to Health Care. The Government Accountability Office (GAO, formerly the General Accounting Office) found that “many of the reported provider actions taken in response to malpractice pressures were not substantiated or did not widely affect access to health care … some reports of physicians relocating to other states, retiring, or closing practices were not accurate or involved relatively few physicians.”[11]

Bush Administration Statistics Show that the Number of Federal Tort Trials is Down Nearly 80 Percent Since 1985; State Tort Trials Also Decreasing. In 2005, the Bush Justice Department reported that the number of tort (personal injury) cases resolved in U.S. District Courts fell by 79 percent between 1985 and 2003. In 1985, 3,600 tort trials were decided by a judge or jury in U.S. District Courts. By 2003, that number had dropped to less than 800.[12] The most recent statistics from the Justice Department also indicate that the number of tort trials at the state level has decreased. These statistics were compiled as part of the Bureau’s survey of state civil justice systems in the nation’s largest 75 counties, which show that among these counties, the number of tort trials decreased 31.8 percent between 1992 and 2001.[13]

The Congressional Budget Office: Malpractice Costs Amount to Less than 2 Percent of Health Care Spending. According to the Congressional Budget Office, malpractice costs amount to “less than 2 percent of overall health care spending. Thus, even a reduction of 25 percent to 30 percent in malpractice costs would lower health care costs by only about 0.4 percent to 0.5 percent, and the likely effect on health insurance premiums would be comparably small.”[14]

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[1] “Study Casts Doubt on Claims That the Medical Malpractice System Is Plagued By Frivolous Lawsuits,” Harvard School of Public health press release, 5/10/06, http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/press/releases/press05102006.html

[2] “Claims, Errors, and Compensation Payments in Medical Malpractice Litigation,” New England Journal of Medicine, 5/11/06, http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/354/19/2024

[3] “Study Casts Doubt on Claims That the Medical Malpractice System Is Plagued By Frivolous Lawsuits,” Harvard School of Public health press release, 5/10/06, http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/press/releases/press05102006.html

[4] “Physician Characteristics and Distribution in the U.S.,” American Medical Association, 2006 edition, p.312

[5] U.S. Census Bureau data: http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/SAFFPopulation?_submenuId=population_0&_sse=on; http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-ds
_name=PEP_2005_EST&-mt_name=PEP_2005_EST_G2005_T001

[6] “Physician Characteristics and Distribution in the U.S.,” American Medical Association, 2006 edition, p.312

[7] Ibid

[8] Ibid

[9] “Trends in Characteristics of Births by State: United States, 1990, 1995, and 2000–2002,” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Volume 52, Number 19, 5/10/04, pp.16-18; “Births: Final Data for 2003,” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Volume 54, Number 2, 9/8/05, p.45.

[10] “Medical Malpractice Payout Trends 1991 - 2004: Evidence Shows Lawsuits Haven’t Caused Doctors’ Insurance Woes,” Public Citizen, May 2005, http://www.citizen.org/documents/Malpracticeanalysis_final.pdf

[11] “Medical Malpractice: Implications of Rising Premiums on Access to Health Care,” GAO, 9/29/03,
www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-836

[12] “Federal Tort Trials and Verdicts, 2002-03”, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 8/17/05

[13] “Civil Trial Cases and Verdicts in Large Counties, 2001”, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 4/04

[14] “Limiting Tort Liability for Medical Malpractice,” Congressional Budget Office, 1/08/04

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As the world's largest trial bar, ATLA promotes justice and fairness for injured persons, defends the constitutional right to trial by jury, and strengthens the civil justice system through education and disclosure of information critical to public health and safety. With 60,000 members worldwide, ATLA provides lawyers with the information and professional assistance they need to serve clients successfully and protect the democratic values of the civil justice system.