President Bush's 2006 State of the Union address promised an effort to restrain rising medical costs. But his talk was long on rhetoric and short on prescription, and we have seen no action since his inauguration — perhaps because he has become preoccupied with the Iraq conflict.
Some of us remember the time when doctors tailored their fees to the economic circumstances of the patient and handled payments over time as a matter of an in-office business. No doctor paying for his own Mercedes-Benz and his wife's Lexus would nowadays consider this. Congress should put a cap on tort recovery for welfare and indigent patients, which should be acceptable to even the most aggressive personal injury lawyer. Second, the government should provide a sliding scale tax write-off for doctors devoting an agreed portion of their practice to pro bono medicine. Finally, we might establish a medical lending facility akin to the student loan program.
David B. Timmins
Salt Lake City