Medical care is prohibitively expensive for some people today, but if you add to that the costs of medical malpractice, it is hard to imagine a culture that makes health care so expensive that many of her own citizens can't afford proper medical care, and many of her doctors have trouble affording the insurance that allows them to stay in business. It is estimated that overall, medical malpractice errors are costly, adding up to as much as $29 million each year. Drug errors alone costs $887 million. The medical malpractice system was meant to discourage carelessness and medical damages, but it hasn't yet done so. In fact, medical malpractice injuries are rising, to 1.5 million a year, while the number of those who actually successfully mount a lawsuit for damages is dwindling, often for the lack of a quality medical malpractice attorney.