[ubernostrum]

Premiums and judgments are way more connected than you are implying.

There is a belief on the part of many people that massive, bank-breaking, out-of-control, $BIGNUM malpractice judgments are common and that this is the reason why premiums have skyrocketed.

This belief is not borne out by the facts, which are that malpractice awards increase, on average, about 3% more than inflation, and that even in states with "here's a nickel, sorry we killed your spouse"-type caps on judgments the premiums have continued to rise far out of proportion to the amounts of the judgments.