(FORTUNE Magazine) – New York State approved a 52% increase in medical malpractice insurance rates, its largest increase in ten years. The hike cemented New York's place as the state with the highest malpractice insurance costs and rekindled a national debate on the alarming rise in malpractice suits--and how to pay for them. Medical malpractice claims and awards have been soaring. According to the American Medical Association, 20 malpractice claims were filed per 100 doctors in 1983, compared with only five per 100 doctors in 1975. A study by Jury Verdict Research, a legal publishing firm based in Solon, Ohio, said that in 171 medical malpractice verdicts in 1984, the average award was $955,000, more than three times the average in 1975. For a neurosurgeon on Long Island--the specialty and the region where malpractice insurance rates are highest--annual premiums will jump from + $66,000 to $101,000. Nationally, rates have increased by 15% to 20% a year since 1980 except for last year, when they rose 25% to 30%, according to St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Co., the largest U.S. medical malpractice insurer. As rates go up, doctors will continue to pass on the added costs to patients--perhaps as much as $10 for a routine visit to a doctor's office in New York, and several hundred dollars more for child delivery, according to some doctors' estimates. Says Dr. James Todd, a member of the AMA's board of trustees, ''Doctors will pay between $1 billion and $1.5 billion in malpractice premiums this year. That clearly will be added on to medical bills.''