(Mal)practice Makes Perfect - Cringely on technology

One of my doctor neighbors who does a lot of surgery spends $70,000 per year on medical malpractice insurance premiums. I asked him if an extra $70,000 per year in income would stop his complaining. He said it would.

So let’s save him the money. The legal and financial costs of medical malpractice in the U.S. amounted to about $17 billion in 2005. That isn’t much compared to the almost $2 trillion total cost of healthcare, but divided among the nation’s 700,000 physicians it’s over $20,000 per head.