Doctors are afraid to practice medicine.
- Out of fear of being sued or losing a lawsuit, 79 percent of doctors said that there have been times when they have ordered more tests than was medically necessary. (Fear of Litigation Study: Impact on Medicine, Harris Interactive, April 11, 2002)
- In a growing trend across the country, hospitals are now forbidding parents from videotaping to photographing the births of their babies for fear of lawsuits. One Chicago-area hospital has banned the practice because of the "volatile legal climate," according to a hospital spokesperson. (Crain's Detroit Business, October 13, 2004; Orlando Sentinel, September 27, 2006)
- More than 40 percent of doctors reported avoiding prescribing appropriate medication because they knew the drug might be involved in litigation. (Pharmaceutical Liability Survey, Harris Interactive, July 15, 2003)
Health care costs rise as litigation costs are passed on to patients.
- PricewaterhouseCoopers calculates that medical liability concerns increase annual health care spending by $124 billion in 2006 dollars. The additional cost of liability-based health care costs adds 3.4 million Americans to the rolls of the uninsured. (“Jackpot Justice: The True Cost of America’s Tort System,” Pacific Research Institute, March 27, 2007)
- Ten percent of every dollar spent on health care is attributed to the costs of liability and defensive medicine. (“The Factors Fueling Rising Healthcare Costs 2006” PriceWaterhouseCoopers, January 2006)
- An estimated $50 billion per year is spent on unnecessary test procedures designed primarily to guard doctors and hospitals against malpractice claims. (Fear of Litigation Study, Conduced by Harris Interactive, Final Report, April 11, 2002)
Access to health care is limited.
- Almost 80 percent of Americans are concerned that frivolous lawsuits have made it harder for them and their families to get affordable health care. (Sick of Lawsuits National Survey, Conducted by Public Opinion Strategies, August 16-18, 2005)
- Quality and access to health care is being threatened in many states. The American Medical Association has identified 20 states as presently facing a medical liability crisis. ("Mass. Named State in Medical Liability Crisis," American Medical Association, June 14, 2004)
- Women in almost half of the states in the country are experiencing disruptions in obstetrical care. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' has identified 23 states where medical liability problems threaten women's access to physicians delivering their babies, a figure that is up from 16 states two years ago. ("ACOG's Red Alert on OB-GYN Care Reaches 23 States," American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, August 26, 2004)
- The impact of lawsuits on the health care system has encroached on critical doctor-patient decisions, such as deciding on course of treatment. More than 90 percent of high-risk medical specialists said that liability pressures were important in their decision to stop providing certain services. (American Medical Association Survey, PR Newswire, April 3, 2003)
Medical innovation is threatened and patient health is jeopardized.
- More than 70 percent of patients believe it is likely that product liability litigation or fear of it has caused pharmaceutical companies to avoid research and development in certain product areas. (Pharmaceutical Liability Survey, Harris Interactive, July 15, 2003)
- While each year over 7.5 million lives in America are either saved by or improved through implantable medical devices, pacemakers and stents, fear of frivolous litigation and excessive jury verdicts has caused manufacturers to limit distribution or stop production altogether. Seventy-five percent of suppliers of biomaterials used to make medical implants banned sales to U.S. manufacturers as a result of these fears. ("Biomaterials Availability: a Vital Health Care Industry Hangs in the Balance," Aronoff Associates for HIMA; "How FDA Regulation and Injury Litigation Cripple the Medical Device Industry," Policy Analysis 412, August 28, 2001)
- Lawsuit fears have found their way into the delivery room, as 42 percent of women believe the current medical litigation environment leads providers to perform Cesarean sections that are not really needed. From 2003 to 2004, there was a 27.5 percent increase in Cesarean sections in the U.S. ("Listening to Mothers® Survey," Childcare Connection, March 20, 2006; Associated Press, November 17, 2005)
- Decades of litigation has decreased production and availability of respirator masks, the types of which would be crucial if pandemic flu hit. In fact, U.S. respirator manufacturers spent 90% of the net income from respirator sales on litigation costs in 2004 alone. (Coalition for Breathing Safety, September 19, 2006)
- Twenty-five percent of patients said they would immediately stop taking a prescribed drug if they saw an ad for a lawsuit involving that drug. (Pharmaceutical Liability Survey, Harris Interactive, July 15, 2003)
- Nine mental health patients in South Mississippi stopped taking their prescribed medications after seeing personal injury lawyer advertising regarding Zyprexa and Risperdal - drugs used to treat patients with schizophrenia and bipolar mania. "People see these ads and they think that they're bad for them, so they quit taking them," said Teri Breister, executive director of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill in Mississippi. "But these patients' lives have come apart again. Every time they stop taking their medications, the episodes become worse." ("Tort Advertisements Worry Some Health Advocates," Biloxi Sun Herald, March 21, 2004)
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