So sorry Bobert but your favorite and only source of news, The El Pinko WAPO says you are wrong:

Dispelling Malpractice Myths

By William R. Brody
Sunday, November 14, 2004; Page B07

..Myth No. 4: Malpractice costs are not a big deal -- they amount to less than 2 percent of total health care costs.

The number sounds insignificant until you stop to consider that U.S. health care spending was a staggering $1.66 trillion in 2003 -- so we are talking of costs on the order of $16 billion to $32 billion.

In the case of Johns Hopkins Medicine, malpractice premiums as a percentage of physicians' total income have risen threefold over the past four years. In 2001 malpractice premiums were about 3 percent of total physician income at Johns Hopkins. They are nearly 10 percent today -- and growing.

The irrationality of our current medical justice system leads to the practice of "defensive medicine," in which doctors try to stave off lawsuits by ordering more tests than are medically necessary. Got a headache? You are as likely to get a CAT scan as a couple of aspirin. The added costs of defensive medicine are estimated at $50 billion to $100 billion per year...