As legislation to revamp the nation's health care system moves forward, expect doctors, hospitals and big insurance companies to renew their efforts to make it harder to sue them when they make mistakes and to cap possible damage awards if a consumer actually wins justice. Yet, a new study by NYPIRG and the Center for Medical Consumers and endorsed by other leading groups questions the core claims these interests make. The new report, Contraindication, uses government data to show that consumer claims in medical malpractice lawsuits haven't caused the increase in medical malpractice insurance premiums nor driven doctors from the state, as doctor groups routinely allege. See the New York Times:

The New York Public Interest Research Group reviewed 15 years of federal data on medical malpractice payments and concluded that the amount of money paid for malpractice claims in New York has actually fallen in recent years, and that the number of overall claims has remained “remarkably stable.”