• Preventable medical errors are the sixth largest killer in America, costing billions of dollars every year. The Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) study of preventable medical errors estimated as many as 98,000 people die every year from medical errors, costing $29 billion to the healthcare system. Preventing medical errors will mean fewer medical negligence lawsuits, lower health care costs, reduce doctors’ insurance premiums, and protect the health and well-being of patients.

• Medical malpractice is already addressed in the health care bills. Both the House and Senate bills offer grant programs or incentive payments to states that initiate pilot projects focusing on medical negligence and patient safety. Additionally, President Obama directed the Department of Health and Human Services to embark on similar demonstration projects.

• Medical malpractice is a tiny percentage of overall health care costs. The Congressional Budget Office has already concluded that the most anti-patient tort reforms would produce insignificant savings of just one-half of one percent, and may lead to poorer health care and worse patient outcomes.

• Very few injured patients ever file a medical negligence lawsuit. Less than one percent of the whole civil caseload is medical negligence claims. In 2006, researchers at Harvard University found that 97 percent of cases were meritorious, concluding, “Portraits of a malpractice system that is stricken with frivolous litigation are overblown.”