Bill,

Your thoughts are good about changing the way that juries are formed. Good thoughts. Even so, the underlying assumption in the rest of your message is that the only way to get back at incompetent doctors is by suing. Have this become so ingrained in our society that suing is the only avenue to cure a wrong? I hope not.

We are missing a second key piece of the medical situation aside from tort reform -- use of medical, dental, or whatever review boards that can punish negligence by pulling the license-to-practice from anyone that is incompetent. That, to me, is the first line of defense against these people.

Thinking further back, how do these people get their licenses in the first place? Does the state check on the capabilities and training record of the license applicant? Hope so, but probably not as well as we'd all like.

Anyway, I agree with tort reform. Suing is not the means to the end. Each of us pays probably $5 to $10 of each doctor's bill to cover malpractice insurance (10 to 25%). That seems more than a bit excessive.

Dale Ranta
DeKalb County, Georgia

Bill Simon's Response: One big factor in all professions is their ability to set standards of competency and police themselves. Unfortunately, I detect a massive amount of inertia in the medical field to "oust" incompetent doctors.

And, the medical field is not alone. Standards for lawyers, accountants, engineers, etc. for professional behavior and professional skills have decreased over the past 30 years. But, no one wants to admit it, lest someone within their own profession start examining their own performance to closely.