Nonpartisan Studies Dispute Basic Assumptions of Bush's Plan to Reduce Number of Uninsured

Bush's main plan to reduce health costs and get more people health insurance is to cut out malpractice lawsuits.

As part of the recent discussion about the 43.6 million Americans without health insurance,1 President Bush once again argued that reform of medical malpractice was key: "We must fix the problem of frivolous lawsuits against our doctors and hospitals." But the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found last year that "malpractice costs account for a very small fraction of total health care spending" and that even radical reform "would have a relatively small effect on total health plan premiums."

This is one of several inconsistencies or contradictions that nonpartisan studies have discovered in the President's plans to gain health coverage for more Americans.