In a February 10 Op Ed in the Wall Street Journal, Curt Levey of the "Washington-based Committee for Justice" argued that healthcare reform should be opposed, because it will increase wasteful litigation. This argument is now spreading around the blogosphere.
The problem with this theory is that it is like saying that hospitals should be closed to save electricity. There is no doubt that litigation is far too wasteful and needs reform (in healthcare and all other fields). The notion, though, that a speculative risk of incremental lawsuits should forestall efforts to address exploding medical and insurance costs (98 percent of which have nothing to do with litigation) and provide coverage to at least some part of the now more than 50 million uninsured Americans is ridiculous.
For example, Mr. Levey expresses concern about the cost of "court battles [that] will focus on the constitutionality of requiring individuals to buy health insurance." In addition to the fact that such lawsuits would be utterly meritless--(have you ever heard of compulsory auto-insurance?)--the cost of such cases, however inflated, would not even rise to the level of insignificant in comparison to national healthcare costs.
Last week, we learned that healthcare now accounts for 17.3 percent of the GDP, and more than half of healthcare costs will soon be paid by government programs. Meanwhile, one of the nation's largest healthcare insurers is increasing some rates from 30 to 39 percent, which will doubtless force more of its subscribers to drop coverage (and lead to still higher rates for those that can afford to continue). At this rate, we will eventually end up with a near single-payor healthcare system--evenin the absence of reform--but one that is incapable of meeting increased demands of an ever-more impoverished public."
P.S. Having never heard of the Committee for Justice, I checked out their website. During the Bush years, the organization bemoaned procedural delays affecting republican judicial nominations. Now, the group is applauding Republican filibusters. Draw your own conclusions.
