Tort Reform's Tiny Savings

Numbers don’t lie. Longtime Republican proposals to cap settlements in medical malpractice cases would only reduce health-care spending by 0.5 percent each year, according to new figures from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. It's not insignificant—$54 billion over 10 years—but it isn't going to pay for major health-care reforms and is much lower than earlier estimates by some of its supporters. "These numbers show that this problem deserves more than lip service from policymakers," Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-UT), who requested the analysis, said in a statement.