Forty-eight percent (48%) of U.S. voters say it is too easy to sue a doctor for medical malpractice in the United States today.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 19% say it is too hard to sue for medical malpractice, while 18% believe the current legal situation is about right. Sixteen percent (16%) are undecided.

Republicans are nearly twice as likely as Democrats to say it is too easy to sue a doctor in America, and a majority of voters not affiliated with either party agrees.

Forty-four percent (44%) of all voters say the federal government should cap the amount of money a jury can award a defendant in a medical malpractice lawsuit. But 36% disagree and oppose caps on jury awards. Twenty percent (20%) are not sure whether caps are a good idea or not.

Perhaps one explanation for the plurality support for caps is that 56% of voters think most money won in medical malpractice lawsuits goes to lawyers rather than the defendants. Only 19% say the defendants get most of the money won in such lawsuits. Nearly one-out-of-four voters (24%) aren’t sure.

Seventy-five percent (75%) say medical malpractice lawsuits are an important factor in the rising cost of health care. Thirty-three percent (33%) say they are very important.

Just 16% say malpractice lawsuits are not very important in terms of increasing the cost of health care, and only one percent (1%) says they are not important at all.

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The findings come as President Obama has signaled a willingness to consider so-called tort reform as part of his proposed overhaul of the U.S. health care system. While Republicans have long sought to limit medical malpractice lawsuits, particularly the size of jury awards, Democrats have resisted, in large part because trial lawyers are a key part of the party’s base.

While 56% of GOP voters and the plurality of unaffiliateds (45%) favor a cap on jury awards in malpractice lawsuits, Democrats disagree and lean slightly in the opposite direction.

Republicans, Democrats and unaffiliated voters are largely in agreement about the importance of medical malpractice lawsuits to the rising cost of health care and also that lawyers get most of the money won in such lawsuits.

However, as is frequently the case, the Political Class has a far different take on the issue than populist or Mainstream America and that gap is often wider than the one between Republicans and Democrats. While 66% of Mainstream Americans say most money won in malpractice lawsuits goes to lawyers, for example, 60% of the Political Class disagree and say most of the money goes to the defendants.

The majority of Mainstream America (54%) says it’s too easy to sue a doctor, but just 40% of the Political Class agrees.

Fifty percent (50%) of Mainstream Americans say the government should cap the size of jury awards in malpractice lawsuits, but 53% of the Political Class opposes such caps.

Yet, interestingly, a higher percentage of the Political Class attributes the rising cost of health care to malpractice lawsuits when compared to the populist viewpoint.

Eighty-three percent (83%) of voters nationwide say America’s legal system should apply the law equally to all Americans rather than using the law to help those who have less power and influence.

Forty-six percent (46%) of Americans have a favorable opinion of lawyers while 49% have an unfavorable view.

Eighty-nine percent (89%) of voters say they have been following news stories about health care reform at least somewhat closely, with 52% who have been following very closely.

But voters remain closely divided on the urgency for health care reform, given the troubled state of the economy. Forty-six percent (46%) believe the Obama administration should move ahead with health care reform, while 45% say it should wait until the economy improves.

Voters are evenly divided on whether the creation of a public sector insurance company is a good idea.

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