By Scott Hensley
When the Congressional Budget Office figured that limits on medical malpractice could reduce the federal budget deficit by $54 billion over the next decade, plenty of folks weren't satisfied with the analysis.
(iStockphoto.com)
Iowa Rep. Bruce Braley, a Democrat who once headed his home state's trial lawyers association, asked CBO to show a few more steps in its math work. The CBO obliged in an 8-page letter on Tuesday.
The big question boils down to how a 2008 estimate of $5 billion in deficit-reduction from malpractice reform over a decade swelled to $54 billion less than a year later.
CBO goes on at length about its estimates. But the big jump boils down to four main reasons:
Bigger savings on malpractice costs (insurance, settlements, etc.);
Decline in defensive medicine;
Increased federal revenue as taxable wages rise; and
Medicare would save even more money than other insurance programs.
If you've read this far and are hungry for more detail, plow through the letter,(pdf) for the nitty-gritty.
NPRWow, this should have been included in health care reform. Why didn't anyone think of it?
