A lawyer running an insurance company?

I saw this post on pointoflaw.com about a lawyer in Illinois who is starting a medical malpractice insurance company. I don't know much about medical malpractice law, and I hope to use this blog to educate myself about the topic. It seems that there aren't too many malpractice firms in Illinois right now, and that most insurance firms are in fact run by doctors themselves, instead of by private companies. Can anyone enlighten me as to the nature of the business? Is Illinois particularly litigious, as the post indicates? Gruntdoc.com responds to pointoflaw, and I found a lot of the comments insightful. I'm not quite sure where I stand on medical malpractice suits. I'm inclined to believe that doctors are unduly punished by the lawsuit-happy American public, but I might just be uninformed. Medrants also responds to this development.