Quote from insider trading:
Malpractice suits account for 1 % of health care cost
Reminds me of McCain thinking the answer to fiscal responsibility was earmarks although its a very small part of the budget
Quote from ByLoSellHi:
This is correct. I don't have the link, but even the AMA does not contest it.
The defensive medicine part is the portion that's open to debate (i.e. how much of the cost of medicine is "defensive," in an overkill fashion, designed to safeproof against claims of malpractice).
Quote from John_Wensink:
The AMA may not contest it but I read an article that said 83% of those doctors that were polled practiced defensive medicine.
Clearly this cannot be quantified in the given numbers hence they are understated.
Texas placed caps on lawsuits and the result was a 20% decrease in premiums.