Medical Malpractice Cases

1) Medical advances (new drugs, technologies, services and procedures). Medical advances are responsible for the increased healthcare costs. Patients demand these because they want the best healthcare possible. Physicians want these because they want the best for their patient, want to use cutting edge technologies for their status, for the increased financial reward for using them, and to practice “defensive medicine” (#3 below). With regard to drug trials, a study published in Health Affairs in 2006 estimates that it costs anywhere from $500 million to $2 billion to bring a new drug to market. Those costs must be borne by consumers who use them.

2) Demographics. The U.S. “baby boom” population is growing older, but a longer lifespan has costs. A longer lifespan requires increased healthcare costs and ultimately, increased long-term care costs. Nearly a third of the Medicare budget, which is approaching a half trillion dollars a year, is spent on patients in the last year of their lives,
The number and amount of medical malpractice lawsuits are driving up the cost of healthcare. The average jury award in a medical malpractice case is now about $3.5 million, a threefold jump since 1994. Fifty-two percent of medical malpractice awards are now above $1 million. One reason for this is due to the practice of “defensive medicine”, in which tests and various medical procedures are often ordered to ensure that if medical staff is later sued, they can document that they did whatever they could to ensure proper care. This practice is correlated with the increase in newer and more sophisticated medical tests and procedures (#1