That's the key finding of a new Public Citizen report A Self-Inflicted "Crisis:" New York's Medical Malpractice Insurance Troubles Caused by Flawed State Rating Setting and Raid on Rainy Day Fund, written with assistance from NYPIRG and the New York-based Center for Medical Consumers. Excerpt from the release:

The report urges Gov. Eliot Spitzer and a task force studying malpractice to focus on ways to improve patient safety and to resist pleas from the insurance industry and the state's doctors to pare back patients' legal rights.[...]The report debunks claims that a recent 14 percent hike in medical malpractice rates was caused by an increase in litigation.[...]Claims that increased rates have caused a doctor shortage in New York are patently false, Public Citizen researchers determined. The state's population of doctors --and of most types of specialists -- is the highest it has been in at least a decade.