Medical Malpractice Problems in Florida

Throughout history, medical malpractice has been an issue prevailing in the 1950's. The awareness was dramatically increased when a popular magazine called the Saturday Evening Post printed a series of articles entitled "Medicine's Legal Nightmare" in 1959" (Medical 4). As more citizens began to file malpractice lawsuits during the 1960's and 1970's, doctors went out and got malpractice insurance to protect themselves against any threat of an expensive lawsuit. As a result of the demand for malpractice insurance, premiums greatly rose for "hospitals by 263%; for physicians they increased 541%; and for surgeons, they went up 949%" (Medical 4). As the 1980's approached, the average award for a malpractice lawsuit was an astonishing one million dollars. As the awards rose in the mid 1980's, so did the insurance premium. The premiums had started at "$1,300 a month in 1970 and rose an astonishing $8,400 dollars a month" (Medical 4). …