Opinion: The growing bipartisan support for health courts

Doctors’ justified distrust of medical justice (which has an error rate of 25 percent) leads them to prescribe and perform treatments for no other reason than to prevent lawsuits. This “defensive medicine” is estimated to cost anywhere from $45 billion to more than $200 billion a year. Fortunately, a growing bipartisan consensus is pointing the way to a solution. There is widespread public support for the creation of special health courts, according to a nationwide poll, conducted in April by the Clarus Research Group for Common Good. Moreover, despite the highly polarized nature of American politics today, there is consistent support across political parties.