Letters to the editor

Editor,

I share writer Dwight Schwab’s concern about Keith Kreitman’s fixation and verbal stalking of Rush Limbaugh ("Kreitman should quit it” in the letters of the Sept. 26 Journal). Nevertheless, Krietman should be applauded for his column ("What doctors say about health care reform”) in the same issue in which he criticized the news media for "... reporting only what the legislators, pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies and the vocal, anti-reform ‘aginers’ have been saying about [health care].” Kreitman got in the trenches and asked some doctors. I wish all news people had such a healthy curiosity and did not confine questions to the usual suspects. Forget Rush, Keith, but do not "quit” asking good questions, which are often more important than the answers.

James O. Clifford Sr.

Redwood City

Health care column needed concrete examples

Editor,

Keith Kreitman’s column ("What doctors say about health care reform” in the Sept. 26 Journal) could have been very informative if the doctors (Chow and Caro) had provided us some concrete personal experiences instead of personal feelings and opinions and general statements.

For example, how much malpractice liability insurance do Chow and Caro carry and at what cost to them? Do they carry $10 million, $25 million, $50 million malpractice liability insurance? And at what cost to them? Is it $50,000 a year? $100,000 a year? $150,000 a year? How does that translate into the amount a patient pays for each office visit to cover the doctor’s malpractice insurance? Does a patient pay $5, $10, $25 for each office visit to cover a doctor’s malpractice insurance? How many doctors do they know who simply cannot afford malpractice insurance or choose not to carry it?

What is the annual cost of defensive medicine that Chow and Caro engage in purely to prevent possible malpractice lawsuits against them? I understand and support their engaging in defensive medicine and I would rather see them get the money than trial lawyers, but I would like to know just how much it is costing their patients or, more likely, their patients’ medical insurance carriers. How many blood tests are they forced to run unnecessarily, how many x-rays, how many MRIs?

How about some specific information that the public can understand and relate to?

Will S. Richardson

San Carlos