But when one imagines what a post-reform American healthcare system might look like, there are two notable aspects in which it would still differ greatly from other OECD nations.

First, American doctors may pay as much as a hundred times more for malpractice insurance than their foreign counterparts, and will likely be sued several times during a career. Democratic healthcare reform would mostly leave this system in place.

But there is reason to believe that medical-liability reform could produce big cost savings. The Congressional Budget Office pegs the savings in overall healthcare spending at $110 billion over 10 years.

Some private estimates are far higher. A new study by the healthcare analytics unit of Thomson Reuters (http://r.reuters.com/nuc85f ) finds that defensive medicine - such as overuse of antibiotics and lab tests - by malpractice-jittery doctors costs the United States as much as $300 billion a year.

Another important difference is in what healthcare providers are paid. Reid’s book is full of examples of spartan medical facilities and doctors compensated more like high-end New York Times reporters than low-end Manhattan hedge fund managers.

Related Posts:

• Newt Gingrich on health care
• Richard Epstein: How Other Countries Judge Malpractice, and Why the US Legal System is Costly
• Harvard economist Greg Mankiw on Obama’s faith-based economic plans: ‘based on large doses of wishful thinking’
• Indep Women’s Forum — There Are Better Ways to Improve Health Care
• THE DEVIL’S DICTIONARY OF HEALTHCARE REFORM: FreedomWorks

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