The Nation - News from Feb. 2, 1986
About 100 of the 22,000 physicians practicing in Massachusetts stopped accepting new patients and scaled down their emergency-room duties to protest the cost of malpractice insurance. Most of the doctors joining the action are affiliated with small community hospitals recently hit by insurance rate increases, and larger hospitals were expected to receive more patients as a result. Barbara Rockett, president of the Massachusetts Medical Society, said that the protest was designed to send a message to state and insurance officials, not to deprive patients of needed care.
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