When I read statistics like these at Business Week, I begin to wonder if the real reason that doctors can't afford malpractice insurance might be that the Insurance cartels are gouging doctors out of sheer greed:

"U.S. property/casualty insurers’ profits surged to $29.88 billion in 2003, which is an almost tenfold increase over the $3.05 billion the insurers collectively reported in 2002, according to the Insurance Services Office Inc. and the Property Casualty Insurers Assn. of America."

In spite of a tenfold increase in profit, the insurance industry is still crusading for tort reform to protect those poor doctors. Seems to me like those poor doctors need to be protected from the insurance industry. After all, insurance profits skyrocket in the same way that malpractice premiums have. Of course, there can't be any connection between the two, can there?