If you read the editorial “Save the Doctors Redux”, which appeared in last month’s Sleep & Health, you may be interested to know that now the protest movement is spreading to Illinois.

On Wednesday, February 26th, 2003, Illinois doctors went on a one-day strike. Dozens of Chicago area doctors traveled to the state capital of Springfield, Illinois, put down their stethoscopes and picked up a protest sign to show that they are fed up with skyrocketing mal practice premiums.

In the Chicago area, malpractice insurance costs as much as $32,000 per year for internists, $76,000 for general surgeons and $110,000 for obstetrician/gynecologists, according to the Medical Liability Monitor. Rates increased, on average, 20 percent to 25 percent last year. (As reported in the Chicago Suntimes, February 23, 2003.)

And on May 13th, the Chicago Medical Society plans to hold a demonstration in Chicago’s Daley Center Plaza.

We will keep you posted.