Bad Doctors or Bad Lawyers

The debate over medical malpractice and whether or not there's a link to insurance rates continues. Today, in the Sac Bee there is an interesting letter with several links to answers . . . .

"The Dec. 26 "Doctors vs. lawyers on malpractice costs" was interesting but incomplete. Here are sources for further research. Malpractice crisis: Damage caps do not lower insurance rates. Go to www.factcheck.org, a nonpartisan organization analyzing political ads. Use "malpractice" as a search term to see why insurance really went up.

Doctors' mistakes: Doctors' mistakes may be the leading cause of death in America. Enter two phrases in any Internet search engine to find a well-researched paper on it: "Nutrition Institute of America" and "Death by Medicine."

Enforcement: Careless doctors keep practicing. Read the "Enforcement Monitor Report" at www.medbd.ca.gov. Medical associations keep the Legislature from giving the disciplinary body any teeth or resources. The result? It takes up to four years to get rid of a bad doctor.

Monopoly: Medicine is a closed shop, designed to keep the numbers of doctors low, so that a few can get wealthy. There are only 125 medical schools in America (www.aamc.org/medicalschools.htm), and few can get in. The public interest is better served by healthy competition.

Dr. Welby vs. Perry Mason? Get rid of the hype. Look at facts to fix medical care."