Health policy keeps making headlines in the presidential race. This time it’s Mitt Romney, who argued yesterday for a cap on malpractice awards. He also said he’d encourage states to create health courts with judges who specialize in hearing medical liability cases, an idea that’s been around for awhile but never really taken off. As governor of Massachusetts, he created a health-care plan that requires everyone to buy insurance, and provides subsidies to help lower-income people do so. That’s been a model for national plans proposed by Hillary Clinton and John Edwards. Romney has shied away from taking his Massachusetts plan nationwide “I believe we have to enact federal caps on non-economic and punitive damages related to malpractice,” Romney said “These lottery-sized awards and frivolous lawsuits may enrich the trial lawyers but they put a heavy burden on doctors, hospitals and, of course through defensive medicine, they put a burden on the entire health care system.” |
