Tort reform is yet another dishonest diversion from the real needs of our nation. The claim that there are frivolous lawsuits and that jury verdicts must be reigned in is a lie perpetrated on simple-minded politicians, a frustrated medical community and gullible citizenry. It is the spawn of the insurance industry, which seeks nothing more than increased profit at the expense of quality family health care. Tort reform should be rejected.

Recently, the president of the Fort Wayne Medical Society offered an opinion in The Journal-Gazette in favor of tort reform. I noted a similar piece in the Washington Post, and I’m sure many such articles have been published nationwide. President Bush recently highlighted this issue with trips to Missouri and Michigan, where he ignored the real-life stories of victims of medical negligence and asbestos-sickened workers in favor of the fairy tale of corporate woe. This is all a shameful diversion from Bush’s failure to lead our country in health-care reform that will show true compassion for all citizens, not just those corporations that support the Republican Party.

Here are the facts: Medical malpractice costs are “less than 2 percent of overall health-care spending. A reduction of 25 percent to 30 percent in malpractice costs would lower health-care costs 0.4 percent to 0.5 percent, and the likely effect on health insurance premiums would be small.” Source: Congressional Budget Office, “Limiting Tort Liability for Medical Malpractice,” Jan. 8, 2004.

Put another way, eliminate damage awards for every case of medical wrongdoing and we’ll save at most 2 percent of the national cost of medical care. Doctors should be angry that their malpractice insurance is too costly, but they need to focus anger on their insurance companies, not injured persons and their lawyers.

Physicians should also focus on the other end of the health-care spectrum, also controlled by the insurance industry – reimbursement rates. Doctors and hospitals are generally paid only a small part of the charges for services because insurers second-guess both the necessity for and reasonable cost of each service. Take a look at any recent explanation of benefits report for your own family (unless you are one of 44 million Americans without insurance), and you will see how the insurance industry has too much control over medical decision making and reimbursement rates.

Insurance costs are not tied to jury verdicts for persons injured by medical negligence. In the states (like Indiana) that already have caps on non-economic damages, doctors’ medical malpractice premiums continue to rise, mainly because insurance companies seek to increase their profits in the face of their own poor market investment performance.

The strongest check on our system of justice is the collective wisdom of jurors. If you are injured by someone’s negligent act, a handful of fellow citizens in your community are chosen to listen to all the evidence of liability and damages and defenses under a set of rules enforced by a dispassionate judge. These people, not the lawyers, not the judge, not the doctor and not the insurance company, decide how much money, if any, will fairly and reasonably compensate for the loss.

The jury trial is a fundamental right of each citizen, guaranteed by the constitutions of the United States and each state. Make no mistake, President Bush and the insurance industry are seeking to take away this right at your expense and for their profit.