Laws/legislation medical liability

During the mid-1980s, insurance against risks posed by synthetic organic chemicals was expensive and sometimes impossible to obtain, for two reasons. First, real interest rates had exhibited extreme variance during the previous 15 years. Real interest rates affect premiums for lines of insurance, such as medical malpractice and environmental liability, that pay claims years after premiums are collected. Second, the use of retroactive strict liability in the "Superfund" law and in various tort decisions has extracted wealth from insurance companies and made them wary of writing policies that could expose them to future legislative and court actions. 

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