Make losers pay for lawsuits

Alan Journet's recent letter regarding our health-care system is correct in that our primary concern should be enhancing the quality of care available to all Americans while controlling costs.

His reference to Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and the United Kingdom having better health care than the United States is debatable, all according to the slant of the study.

There is an elephant in the room, however, which seems to be continually ignored by some conservatives and most liberals: our crying need for tort reform. In the European countries anyone can sue for any reason, but if they lose they have to pay all trial costs. This eliminates ridiculous lawsuits, which are the cause for exorbitant liability insurance for our entire medical profession and have no merit except to enhance the trial lawyers' special interests.

There is no provision for this in President Obama's proposed legislation, and conservatives should absolutely insist that we align our tort legislation with the above-mentioned countries. This would not only reduce the costs of our health care, but also our cost of manufacturing as well as our service industry.

DON CRADER, Marble Hill, Mo.