Originally Posted by Snake Doctor

Ok now you're exaggerating wildly and it devalues your point. (A doctor scratches you and it costs 50 million? c'mon)

Medical malpractice insurance has been less than 1% of the cost of health care for the past 18 years.
http://www.centerjd.org/air/pr/AIRhealthcosts.pdf

Even if you factor in the practice of "defensive medicine" that some docs practice to avoid potential lawsuits you're looking at maybe 3% or 4% of the nation's total health care bill.

So even if we outlawed malpractice suits altogether, it's not the panacea to health care costs that you think.

There will be some common ground here though.....the left can give up punitive damages and limit lawsuits to lost wages/health care costs/quality of life/attorney fees, if in exchange, the AMA and Insurance companies are willing to give the boot to the doctors that are the worst offenders.
5% of doctors are responsible for half of the malpractice in the U.S.
http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=1222

To date, the AMA and insurance companies have been unwilling to kick these docs out of the profession (the AMA looking out for their members, and insurance companies spread the risk around to all policy holders, and operate on a margin, so higher premiums = higher profits)