Medical myths: malpractice insurance not the only health-care culprit.

• Author: Stokes, Jeanie

President George W. Bush in December renewed his call for Congress to rein in medical-liability claims. Speaking at a White House Economic Conference, Bush called for limits on damages in medical malpractice lawsuits as a means of curbing rising healthcare costs. "There is no doubt in my mind, by passing real, substantive medical liability reform, it will help control the rising costs of health care," Bush told the conference.

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Pete Coors, Colorado's unsuccessful Republican Senate candidate, also had called for medical-liability reform. Echoing the White House position, Coors blamed lawyers and malpractice suits as the driver of rising health-care costs in general. Coors' problem in making that case, however, was that Colorado already had effective malpractice-liability limits in place, and doctors' liability actually accounts for only a fraction of rising medical costs.

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In fact, despite a recent three-year double-digit rise in malpractice insurance premiums in Colorado, Bush and other politicians need look no further than this state to see the effect of limits on medical liability. State lawmakers implemented curbs on medical damages in 1988, nearly 17 years ago.

"Colorado probably has the most stringent tort reform in the country, in all areas, with caps on almost every possible kind of recovery--from medical malpractice to skiresort liability," says John Sadwith, executive director of the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association. The association's 1,200 members represent parties seeking to recover, by means of a civil lawsuit, costs related to a tort, or injury that is willful or the result of negligence.

Medical-malpractice payments here are limited to $1 million to cover both "economic" damages such as medical bills and lost wages, and "non-economic" damages--what used to be called "pain and suffering." No more than $300,000 may be assessed as "non-economic" damages.

Judges in Colorado do have the authority to exceed the $1 million cap if they find the limitation would be unfair to the litigant due to the extent of damages or loss of income.

Bush wants Congress to limit non-economic damages to $250,000--the same limit set in Colorado from 1988 to 2003. Other provisions sought at the federal level, such as limiting punitive damages to reasonable amounts and setting time limits for the filing of malpractice lawsuits, for example, are already part of the Colorado code.

To be sure, problems with...