[claudenm]

Malpractice litigation increases health care spending by 2.4% [0]. Many states have already passed tort reform that limits how and when a patient can sue and recover. There are lots of factors that increase health costs in this country, but litigation barely registers. Getting insurance companies out of the game (the BIG Leeches, in your example, who take 20% of the dollars in the system) would go a much longer way.

[0]http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/29/9/1569.abstract