Frivolous lawsuits are one of the leading causes of the skyrocketing health-care costs in our country. Not only do these lawsuits increase your medical costs, they also drive many fine medical professionals out of business. According to the Harvard School of Public Health, 40 percent of medical malpractice suits filed in our country are “without merit.”

On March 22, I was joined by 222 of my colleagues in sending to the U.S. Senate the Protecting Access to Healthcare (PATH) Act, legislation that enacts real lawsuit abuse reform. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that lawsuit abuse reforms in the PATH Act would reduce the federal budget deficit by more than $45 billion over the next ten years at a time when cutting spending is critical to our nation’s future prosperity.

The lawsuit abuse reforms we passed would place a $250,000 cap on noneconomic damages; limit contingency fees lawyers can charge; place guidelines on punitive damages; provide a safe harbor from punitive damages for products that meet Food and Drug Administration safety requirements; and preserve all state laws that place higher or lower limits on any form of damages. 

I am proud of this commonsense legislation, and it bears strong resemblance to a lawsuit abuse reform law passed by the Missouri General Assembly in 2005 and signed into law by then-Gov. Matt Blunt. Within a few years of its passage, Missouri’s medical malpractice claims reached historic lows and claims had been substantially reduced, resulting in savings for all taxpayers. I am confident that the federal PATH Act would have similar results on a national scale.

Lawsuit abuse reform is not the only action the PATH Act takes. The Act also eliminates a board of unelected bureaucrats established by the president’s health-care law that would have decision-making authority over the quality and accessibility of health-care for America’s seniors and could lead to the denial of care for them. This repeal provision, combined with the substantial lawsuit abuse reforms, puts our health-care system on the road to recovery and takes us one step closer to repealing President Obama’s unprecedented and unconstitutional government takeover of health-care.

As a side note, this week the Supreme Court heard arguments on the constitutionality of the health-care law, which has faced innumerable legal challenges almost since the day the president signed it into law.  A ruling is expected by June. This much is clear after this week’s Supreme Court arguments: the centerpiece of President Obama’s signature health-care law stands in real danger of being struck down.