Get Tort reform and we do not need Health Care Reform

On Oct. 1 I posted a quote from Michael Hiltzik's LA Times column headlined "TORT REFORM IS THE HEALTHCARE DEBATE'S FRIVOLOUS SIDESHOW."
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hiltzik1-2009oct01,1,2715712.column

He wrote "The truth is that medical liability isn't a big driver of health costs overall. Studdert estimates the cost of malpractice litigation, in court and through defensive medicine, at roughly 2% to 3% of all U.S. healthcare spending -- in other words, no more than $50 billion out of a total annual bill of $1.7 trillion."

The cost of malpractice litigation is even lower than previously estimated in Mr. Hiltzik's column. A new report published in today's LA Times refutes the 2% - 3% estimate as being at least 4 times too high.

"The cost of malpractice Enacting a cap on pain-and-suffering and punitive damages, changing liability laws and tightening the statute of limitations on malpractice claims would lower total healthcare spending by about one-half of 1% each year --$11 billion at the current level -- according to an estimate by the nonpartisan agency." This is from the Congressional Budget Office.

"The figure is far lower than previous estimates by groups backing malpractice reform."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-malpractice10-2009oct10,0,4877440.story

I hope this finally puts to rest the straw man "tort reform" argument as a solution to high medical costs.