I write to respond to two paragraphs of a recent op-ed blaming medical malpractice lawsuits, in part, for high health care costs (“The best defense to for-profit health insurance? Staying healthy,”) Dec. 20.

According to the writer, Dr. Gary Zartarian, the legal system is run by crafty medical malpractice lawyers who, in a ploy to enrich themselves at the expense of the public, “bia(s) jurors” into blaming innocent physicians for unavoidable bad outcomes.

It is a common misconception that every person who experiences a bad outcome at a hospital is rewarded with a suitcase full of cash. Nothing could be further from the truth. In 2022, there were 52 medical malpractice claims filed in Maine — including claims against hospitals, doctors, nursing homes and pharmacies. In a given year, my law firm speaks to hundreds of people hoping to bring medical malpractice claims; we decline to represent somewhere around 99% of them. Is that because only 1% of these callers has experienced medical negligence? No. The frequency of medical errors in the United States is astonishing, vastly eclipsing error rates of other developed nations. Rather, we take so few cases in large part because of legal reforms implemented decades ago that make many malpractice claims prohibitively expensive.

Zartarian suggests that we swap out medical malpractice lawsuits for a “fund” to take care of people experience bad outcomes. Given how many bad medical outcomes I hear about in a given week, I can only imagine that such a fund would be vastly more expensive than our current system. More importantly, such a system would not financially incentivize hospitals to implement better safety systems, or to root out bad doctors.

Taylor Asen
Gideon Asen LLC
Auburn