If you have any doubt about the trouble that unjustified medical malpractice lawsuits can cause, just consider the findings of a recent study that appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The study found that a settlement or other payment occurs in only one in five malpractice suits. In other words, physicians -- or their insurers -- are not ordered to pay in 80 percent of the cases brought against them.
And yet, one in 14 doctors is sued every year, according to the study. In fact, almost all surgeons and a majority of doctors are sued at some point.
That means not only damage to doctors' reputations but major legal and malpractice insurance costs for physicians -- even if they perform their duties with total competence. Those costs add massively to the sky-high cost of health care.
There is, of course, no question that doctors -- like people in any other line of work -- sometimes may not perform well. It is proper for patients who are harmed by a badly performing doctor to be fully compensated for their medical expenses and actual costs such as lost wages, and for them to receive reasonable damages for pain and suffering.
But when a lawsuit is frivolous, it exacts a high price from all of us.