A brief historical note: During the 1970s, the United States experienced what has been termed its first malpractice “crisis.” During this period, previous underwriters of malpractice insurance policies abandoned the market in response to increasing claims and decreasing profits. Premiums again began to soar in the early 1980s. As a result of rising premiums and insurers leaving the market, health care providers found it difficult to obtain insurance.
See Weiler, supra note 6, at 5.
See also Kansas Malpractice Victims Coalition, 757 P.2d at 254 (striking down a cap on total recovery for malpractice victims). Perhaps the most dramatic instance of this phenomenon occurred in Virginia in 1987. Following the District Court's ruling striking down a $1 million statutory cap on medical malpractice damages, and upholding an $8.3 million jury award, the leading insurance carrier withdrew from the market, leaving 140 of 600 obstetricians in the state uninsured.
See Boyd v. Bulala, 647 F.Supp. 781 (W.D. Va.
1986), aff'd in part, rev'd in part,
Boyd v. Bulala, 877 F.2d 1191 (4th Cir. 1989); Cynthia L. Gallup,
Can No-Fault Compensation of Impaired Infants Alleviate the Malpractice Crisis in Obstetrics? 14 J. Health Politics, Pol'y & L. 691 (1989). As Weiler points out, the size and unpredictability of a few large tort awards can have a major impact on insurance premiums. Weiler,
supra note 6, at 3.
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