Public Citizen Claims Texas Med Mal Caps Have Failed to Improve Healthcare or Keep Costs Down

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Public Citizen, a public interest advocacy group, has noted that the Texas medical malpractice liability caps instituted in 2003 have been a miserable failure. The caps have failed to lower medical costs and more Texans have no health insurance than in 2003.
Why is this important for the state of medical malpractice in New Hampshire? It’s crucial and relevant for Granite Staters because the Texas “experiment” has been touted as a model for the entire nation in improving healthcare and lowering medical costs. According to the Public Citizen release:
• The percentage of uninsured people in Texas has increased, remaining the highest in the country with a quarter of Texans now uninsured;
• The cost of health insurance in the state has more than doubled;
• The cost of health care in Texas (measured by per patient Medicare reimbursements) has increased at nearly double the national average; and
• Spending increases for diagnostic testing (measured by per patient Medicare reimbursements) have far exceeded the national average.

Holly Haines
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