Will indexing the cap raise health care costs on patients?
Medical malpractice costs (payments and insurance) represent only a very small fraction of health care costs. In fact, California’s medical malpractice cap has not reduced health care costs; indexing the cap will not raise costs because malpractice-related costs are such an infinitesimally small portion of health care costs. The CBO has found that the package of limitations on liability advocated by the AMA cannot possibly reduce healthcare costs by more than ½ of 1%. In contrast, the Affordable Care Act contains several reforms that are already reducing healthcare costs by more than that amount: Accountable Care Organizations, Patient-Centered Medical Homes, pay for performance initiatives, and bundled payments.