In the previous post, I mentioned tort reform. I should clarify I don't mean TORT reform, I mean the reform of how doctors and hospitals deal with careless errors and malpractice that harm patients. Continuing the current system of addressing errors and malpractice is not a great idea, to say the least. Caps on awards certainly wouldn't stop our problems. Here Dean Baker gives a broad-brush picture of why:
Doctors are rarely sanctioned by medical boards for negligence. (Doctors usually control the licensing boards.) If they don't face serious civil penalties for negligence, then we are likely to see more incompetent doctors remaining in practice.
What is needed is a new system for addressing medical errors and malpractice problem, including a willingness to survey records for mistakes so that technical and educational improvements could be made and some kind of arbitration system that neither lawyers nor doctors nor insurance have undue influence over. This is another example of an issue which the market certainly doesn't address properly.
And while you go after the lawyers, please also remember that insurance companies make a lot of money off liability insurance.