Oregon Law Review : Vol.100, No.2 (2022)

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A Cure for What Ails You: How Universal Healthcare Can Help Fix Our Tort System
(University of Oregon School of Law, 2022-05-12) Pimentel, David
The U.S. tort system has, since the mid-twentieth century, evolved to bring particular policy emphasis to the problem of compensating victims of accidental injury. Much of the focus has shifted from the wrongfulness of the conduct of the tort feasors—and the corresponding need for both accountability and deterrence—toward the needs of the injured, particularly as the cost of medical treatment has skyrocketed.The tort system’s efforts to remedy the problem—accident victims’ inability to pay for the medical care they require—has, this article argues, distorted the policy objectives and priorities of the tort system and has contributed to the widely perceived “tort crisis.” Accordingly, a national health insurance program that provides health care to everyone (“Universal Care”), such as the Medicare-for-All bills now being suggested in Congress, would go far toward curing the ills of our tort system.