Ridic Goran, Howard Tim, Ridic Ognjen
Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Acta Inform Med. 2012 Mar;20(1):32-9. doi: 10.5455/aim.2012.20.32-39.
Using the survey data obtained from doctors in Connecticut, we estimate the "true" costs of defensive medicine and medical malpractice awards via litigation in the overall aggregate picture of U.S. national annual health expenditures.
Progressives claim that these costs amount only to approximately 2% of total annual health expenditures, while conservatives claim that these costs are much higher, in the neighborhood of 10%. Conservatives want to reform the current medical malpractice system because the savings could be significant. Progressives claim that this issue is a "red herring" in the overall picture of health care reform and that other factors such as hospital costs, payments to physicians and pharmaceutical prices are the largest contributors to runaway health care costs, currently amounting to 18% of GDP. The health of the national economy, deficit reduction and future prosperity will depend upon the speed and quality of the cost reducing solutions.
An in-depth look into cost and profit structure of each provider's procedure and legislative push for price and quality transparency of the informed and educated constituents are recommended to improve this serious national, socio-economic problem.
利用从康涅狄格州医生处获得的调查数据，我们在美国年度医疗总支出的整体框架内，估算了防御性医疗和医疗事故诉讼赔偿的“真实”成本。
进步派人士称，这些成本仅占年度医疗总支出的约2%，而保守派人士则称这些成本要高得多，接近10%。保守派希望改革现行的医疗事故制度，因为节省的费用可能相当可观。进步派人士称，在医疗改革的整体图景中，这个问题是“转移注意力的话题”，医院成本、医生薪酬和药品价格等其他因素才是医疗成本失控的最大原因，目前已占国内生产总值的18%。国民经济的健康、赤字削减和未来繁荣将取决于降低成本解决方案的速度和质量。
建议深入研究每个医疗服务提供者诊疗程序的成本和利润结构，并通过立法推动信息充分且受过教育的选民了解价格和质量透明度，以改善这一严重的国家社会经济问题。
