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Recent Research Findings 1 (December 10, 2009)

handle is hein.congrec/cbo1081 and id is 1 raw text is: CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE Douglas W, Elmendorf, Director U.S. Congress Washington, DC 20515 December 10, 2009 Honorable John D. Rockefeller IV United States Senate Washington, DC 20510 Dear Senator: This letter responds to questions you posed about the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO's) recent analysis of the budgetary effects of proposals to limit costs related to medical malpractice (tort reform), as described in a letter to Senator Hatch.' In particular, this letter addresses your questions about how recent empirical studies affected CBO's analysis, why CBO's latest estimates of the budgetary effects of tort reform are larger than the agency's previous estimates, and whether tort reform would have a negative impact on patients' health. In the letter to Senator Hatch, CBO concluded that tort reform would lower costs for health care both directly, by reducing medical malpractice costs, and indirectly, by reducing the use of health care services through changes in the practice patterns of providers; the agency estimated that enacting a package of proposals outlined in that letter would reduce federal budget deficits by about $54 billion during the 2010-2019 period. Previously, the agency had found that tort reform would lower health care costs only by reducing medical malpractice costs, and it had estimated significantly smaller effects of tort reform on the federal budget. In the letter to Senator Hatch, CBO noted that imposing limits on suits for damages resulting from negligent health care might have a negative impact on health outcomes but concluded that the evidence is less clear about the effects of tort reform on health outcomes than it is about the effects on health care costs. Recent Research Findings CBO's latest assessment of the effects of tort reform on spending for health care draws on a considerable amount of analysis that the agency has undertaken during the past several years and a stream of recent research studies that have used a 1 Congressional Budget Office, lecter (o (bhe ! ioorable Orrin G. 1 iatch regarding effects of irpiosals (o Fiit co ( related to medical malpractice (October 9, 2009). www.cbo.gov

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