This question can be answered — perhaps unscientifically but with arresting examples nonetheless — by just one week’s worth of news. Joanne Doroshow of the Center for Justice and Democracy did a roundup of the evidence and posted her findings on the Huffington Post.
Ms. Doroshow found lots of reports of terrible injuries to patients and little accountability for the wayward practitioners except through the painful but necessary process of lawsuits in court. As she concluded:
Fixing our health care insurance system is no easy job. But this is the wrong time to consider weakening the legal liability and accountability of incompetent or reckless health care providers.