I don't really have the time to get into it too much, but I would make three points:

(1) Medical-Malpractice is hardly the only area in healthcare where the US pays a lot more than Europe. Your article says that we pay twice as much as Canada and Europe in medical malpractice. We also pay three times as much in doctor's salaries. UK Cardiologist average salary: ~$120,000. US Cardiologist average salary ~$400,000. (I am not promising that these numbers are exact...there is a lot of information out on the internet but the general point is true.) Should doctor's make a lot less money as well?

(2) Medical Malpractice is a pretty small percentage of the total healthcare costs. It seems that the main argument is that medical malpractice drives defensive medicine for extra procedures. Maybe and probably. BUT there are so many other incentives for extra procedures...look at the constant Medicare/Medicaid fraud which occurs because doctors get paid more the more work they do. My point is that doctor's would probably be just as incentivized to do all the extra stuff even without medical malpractice.

(3) Somebody has to bear the risk of health-care screw ups. If you completely get rid of medical malpractice liability, then John Doe who got the wrong testicle removed (check out article) would have to bear that cost alone and the doctor who messed up would have to pay nothing. The problem is that the doctor is in the best position to prevent such an accident...the doctor should be the one who is incentivized to prevent it. Not the patient. Maybe the cost recoveries are ridiculous, but if someone can't work again or can't have kids they have been damaged.

(4) Tort reform has already been applied in most states. And healthcare costs have continued to rise.

In sum, there are probably reforms that can be done to lower healthcare costs by changing medical malpractice. But they are probably only going to have marginal effects. There are a lot of other factors that have to be dealt with as well, and we should not allow the lawyer boogeyman to dominate policy.