To the Editor:
Why don't the doctors who whine about medical malpractice insurance premiums band together and sue the insurance companies? Better yet, why dosen't Congress do something like this, for the doctor's benefit?
The doctors are the insurance companies. According to the Physician Insurers Association of America, a trade group of about 50 doctor-owned malpractice insurers, they cover about 60% of U.S. doctors in private practice and hospitals.
What are the profits of these doctor-owned insurance companies that doctors want to protect?
Limits on the rights of people hurt by medical malpractice will victimize them and their families further while helping neither patients nor doctors. The real beneficiaries will be insurance companies, including the doctor-owned malpractice insurers.
Solving this crisis will involve a three-legged stool of legal reforms (not tort reforms), insurance reforms and reduction of medical errors.
Gregory D. Pawelski
Wernersville, Pa.