Noneconomic Damage Caps

The MPL Association Data Sharing Project recorded the closure of approximately 22,000 paid claims from 2011 to 2020, resulting in approximately $8 billion paid in indemnity and $4 billion spent on defense expenses. During this period, a review of states with medical liability reforms revealed that 28 states had noneconomic damage caps (with one state implementing caps during that time) and 23 states had no caps (four of those states had caps declared unconstitutional during that time frame). Additionally, states with noneconomic damage caps reported a lower average indemnity payment of $249,556 compared to states without tort reform, which had an average indemnity payment of $388,430.

In states with tort reform, the percentage of claims decreased as the indemnity payment threshold increased, while states without tort reform distributed claims uniformly. The percentage of claims resulting in indemnity payments of at least $1 million more than doubled from 6.5% to 14.2%, when comparing states with tort reforms to those without.