Let government deal with medical liability

Lanlan Hoo of Wheaton, in the July 2 edition of the Daily Herald, makes an interesting observation on the superiority of Britain's health care system versus ours - both in cost and service. I do not challenge his assertions but offer a simple solution, in any case, to make our health care immediately less costly and more available.

Just allow the government to pick up the responsibility for medical liability, as it surely does in Britain's socialized system, and then adopt the British system of making the plaintiff pay all court costs if a lawsuit is found to have no merit.

This would do two things: reduce the number and accumulated cost of frivolous lawsuits and outrageous awards, and it would eliminate the huge cost and exercise of what we refer to as defensive medicine. This reduction in defensive medicine would make available more resources for people seriously needing them. Costs would be additionally reduced by more resources chasing a reduced demand.

"All" we need to do is to get the medical and trial lawyer lobbyists out of the way or just vote for politicians who are more interested in the public they serve than the interests that fund their campaigns.

This may seem impossible but it is no better, and expectedly worse, if these "old system" politicians are in charge of the entire American health care system.

And one additional thought - Britain has one-fifth the population of the United States. Hence, their politicians and voters are more tightly connected. This certainly makes the politicians more mindful of those they serve - not a benefit here.

Peter Wohld

Glen Ellyn