Thanks Grey, and aside from your far left-leaning politics, I'm a fan of yours too
I think all of your points above are valid. I would add though that while there a few attys looking to sue docs, there a few in every city who make up for the rest.
I would also mention that reviewing many of these cases over the years, I have found they are, in the main, (and I'm talking about a 95% main) totally frivolous.
In my own case, 14 years of practice with 2 silly claims, both dismissed, and I found my premiums in suit-happy Mississippi tripled last year, resulting in my having to close my office and leave the state.
Now to be fair, there are some horrendous malpractice atrocities committed out there and we need a way to deal with them. There are also a handful of totally incompetent docs in every community and we need a way to get rid of them. But most important is the fact that we need a way to bring affordable and reasonably good medical care to everyone who needs it, anywhere they happen to be.