Via The Hill:
The new study — published Tuesday in the journal Health Affairs — found that the annual cost related to medical liability is $55.6 billion. Most of that spending ($45.6 billion) is related to defensive medicine — the tests, drugs and other procedures that doctors prescribe in order to limit the risk of being sued for malpractice.
The researchers said their findings indicate that malpractice-related costs are neither insignificant nor a cure-all for the nation's skyrocketing health spending trends.
"The amount of defensive medicine is not trivial," Amitabh Chandra, a co-author of the study and public policy professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, said in a statement, "but it’s unlikely to be a source of significant savings."
The article quotes Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley as saying something to the effect of “$45.6 billion sure sounds like a lot of money to me!”
*SIGH*
Yes you old crank but not when compared to the entire picture! Are you seriously telling us you don’t understand that concept? In which case, why the hell are you the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee?
And just as an aside, why the hell did The Hill interview Grassley anyway? Why not interview Max Baucus, who is the Democratic chair of the Finance Committee? Why is it whenever there’s a research study of this kind the media always runs to get the Republican reaction? I don’t recall anyone rushing to find out what Democrats thought when that party was in the minority. Republicans rule the media’s world and it’s beyond tiresome.
