According to a paper by David A Matsa. who is an economics professor their is an effect on medical malpractice liability damage caps. In other words, the amount of money you can get if you sue a physician if something goes wrong is capped and you can only get X amount back as determined by a law in your state. (I have discussed this issue on my website about the legal standpoint of wisdom teeth removal.)
Matsa finds that “Back-of-the-envelope calculation using estimates presented… implies that the enactments of damage caps are responsible for approximately 17 percent of the increase in frontier rural specialists in these states since 1970.” Even so, Matsa finds that there really is no significant effect on physician supply for most Americans (those who do not live in rural areas).
If you are interested in the entire paper you can access it through several sources through the Social Science Research Network. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=920846. The paper dates from June, 2006, and is titled “Does Malpractice Liability Keep the Doctor Away? Evidence from Tort Reform Damage Caps. “