Medicine: Swedish no-fault malpractice insurance a fit for the US?

Certainly seems possible. Even if it's not necessarily cheaper, it certainly seems conducive to better health care.

It might be that we must create an alternative to our present lawsuit-oriented malpractice system. Perhaps the most intriguing possibility is what malpractice wonks call a "no-fault" system. A no-fault system would compensate those who have been harmed without assigning blame—a process easier for patients and less traumatic for doctors. In our present system, to win restitution, a harmed patient must prove not just that a doctor or hospital erred, but that the error was caused by neglect or incompetence so severe it amounts to a breach of the doctor's or hospital's legal duty of care. In short, the patient must prove not only an avoidable error but gross negligence or incompetence. In a no-fault system, the patient need prove only the avoidable error. The question of whether the doctor was negligent or incompetent—the accusatory crux of our present system, and the part that so humiliates and infuriates doctors—would not pertain. A separate disciplinary agency or panel would handle cases of gross negligence, incompetence, or breach of duty.

Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and New Zealand have used no-fault malpractice systems for 20 to 30 years, with admittedly mixed results. Yet several academics, most notably Harvard's David Studdert and Troyen Brennan, have studied these countries' systems and concluded that a U.S. system modeled on that of Sweden could more consistently compensate victims of avoidable mishaps and more effectively reduce error and incompetence—all for the same cost. No-fault would also make doctors and patients allies rather than adversaries when something goes awry.