Obamacare: Where is Tort Reform? CBO Says Tort Reform Would Reduce Deficit by $54 Billion

WHERE IS TORT REFORM NOW?

If Obama and Democrats are truly serious about health care reform, why are they waiting until 2013 to implement it? Conveniently enough that is after the 2012 elections. Why are we waiting until 2013 to reduce the cost to our deficits when there are measures now like tort reform that could begin reducing the costs now! But there is nothing political about Obamacare, right?

Does anyone really believe that Obama and the Democrats are going to stand up to the special interest groups and Trial Lawyers on tort reform? Are they going to bite the hand that has and continues to feed them? Hardly.

As the Astute Blogger astutely states, the only thing crazier than giving Obama the Nobel Peace Prize, is to pass Obamacare. Why are we waiting for 2013 when tort reform and going after waste and fraud in Medicare & Medicaid could occur tomorrow? Is it any wonder why no one trusts Obama or Democrats on healthcare? They state that this is needed immediately, yet they will not implement these changes until 4 years later. The sky is hardly falling.

Under the Democratic bills, federal tax credits to help make health insurance affordable for millions of low- and middle-income households won’t start flowing until 2013 — after the next presidential election. But Medicare cuts and a sizable chunk of the tax increases to pay for the overhaul kick in immediately.

As pointed out by Hot Air with regards to the Baucus healthcare non-existent bill  the CBO stated that TORT REFORM would reduce the deficit by $54 billion over the next 10 years.

According to CBO director Douglas Elmendorf on his blog, the CBO studied the impact of both the reduced cost of litigation and the elimination of defensive medicine that would result with tort reform.  Elmendorf says that tort reform would reduce the federal deficit $54 billion over the next ten years

The CBO analysis:

CBO now estimates that implementing a typical package of tort reform proposals nationwide would reduce total U.S. health care spending by about 0.5 percent (about $11 billion in 2009). That figure is the sum of a direct reduction in spending of 0.2 percent from lower medical liability premiums and an additional indirect reduction of 0.3 percent from slightly less utilization of health care services. (Those estimates take into account the fact that because many states have already implemented some of the changes in the package, a significant fraction of the potential cost savings has already been realized.)

Enacting a typical set of proposals would reduce federal budget deficits by roughly $54 billion over the next 10 years, according to estimates by CBO and the staff of the Joint Committee of Taxation. That figure includes savings of roughly $41 billion from Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Federal Employees Health Benefits program, as well as an increase in tax revenues of roughly $13 billion from a reduction in private health care costs that would lead to higher taxable wages.