Submitted to the Economist:

Sir,

Your recent article on US tort reform legislation mentioned that spiraling medical-malpractice costs are pushing up medical care costs. A January 2004 brief published by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) investigated the potential outcome of such legislation. Research of states that have already instituted lawsuit caps found that they did result in a 25 to 30% reduction in claims paid, but since medical-malpractice claims account for only 2% of total medical costs their net result would probably lower health care costs by .4 to .5%. Perhaps most telling is when the CBO compared per capita health care spending between states with lawsuit caps and those without and found no significant difference. Tort reform legislation may temporarily gratify Congress' need to solve all of America's problems but will provide little change in health care costs.