THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MEDICAL MALPRACTICE AND QUALITY OF CAREt

Medical malpractice claims are increasing at a rate of about ten percent per year.' Seven chairmen of neurosurgery departments in leading New York hospitals have a combined total of twenty-five malpractice suits filed against them, seeking an aggregate total of $6.3 million. ' In 1960, total malpractice premiums in the United States were $60 million; by 1975, the total will be about $1 billion.3 Many insurance companies have stopped providing professional liability coverage and some physicians have been temporarily unable to obtain malpractice insurance at any price. California, although perhaps at the frontier of the medical malpractice issue, is not atypical. The number of claims per 100 physician policy years there has increased from about twelve in 1968-69 to about twenty-five in 1975.4 In 1974-75, six jury awards in California were for over-a million dollars each; in the state's entire history, there have been only sixteen awards of over a million dollars each.5 Rates for malpractice insurance increased by 400 percent