Praise (Sort of) for Latest Cato Health Care Study

Physician assistant and health policy wonk Michael Halasy blogs about Shirley Svorny’s new study on medical malpractice liability reform:

Cato has truly shocked me….stupefied really…


Well, just the other day, I received an update from Cato. Now, Michael Cannon is a good guy, and while he and I simply don’t agree on … well much of anything from a health policy perspective, his colleague, Shirley Svorny, wrote this: “…Reducing physician liability for negligent care by capping court awards, all else equal, will reduce the resources allocated to medical professional liability underwriting and oversight and make many patients worse off. Legislators who see mandatory liability caps as a cost‐​containment tool should look elsewhere.”


I believe that I have been consistent with this…over and over…caps on noneconomic damages DO NOT WORK.


So, I have to (gulp) swallow some pride, and tip my hat to Cato…Now I need to go take a shower. I feel a little dirty.

It’s a good reminder that libertarians do not fit neatly into the usual political categories. We oppose direct government regulation of health care quality, such as through clinician licensing. But we support indirect regulation, such as through the medical malpractice system, and defend that system from critics who want to impose top‐​down rules on that system like mandatory caps on noneconomic damages. We prefer bottom‐​up approaches, like letting free individuals choose their own med mal reforms.