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"You missed the point - Most doctors don't want to retire, early or otherwise, these physicians are being forced out of practice."

Between having a BIL who's a doctor and a wife who's a nurse, I can tell you that the doctors around here who want to retire early want to do so because they're tired of fighting with HMOs and with the government over Medicaid or Medicare payments, not because of lawsuits.

Remember the big West Virginia medical insurance crisis? Don't believe everything you read about that one.

In February 2001, responding to the doctors' allegations (that W.Va. was one of the worst for lawsuits and that all doctors were being run out of business), the Charleston Gazette undertook a computer-assisted analysis of more than 2,000 medical malpractice claims reported to the West Virginia Board of Medicine. The paper determined that far from being in a state of crisis, West Virginia ranked 35th in the country for median malpractice payouts. The paper also found that both the number of malpractice claims and the dollar amounts of the settlements and verdicts had actually declined between 1993 and 2001. Nor was West Virginia suffering under an epidemic of "disappearing doctors." Last August, the Gazette's Messina attended a rally at which the West Virginia medical society set out 37 empty chairs labeled with the names of local doctors who supposedly had been forced out of practice because of insurance costs. He discovered that at least two of the doctors named were indeed not practicing--because they were dead. Another two were still actually treating Wheeling patients. A Public Citizen study of the state medical board records later found that the number of doctors in West Virginia increased by more than 350 between 1997 and 2002.

Or how about some of the doctors who publically claimed they were being run out of business?

Take Dr. Rajai Khoury, a striking Wheeling cardiovascular surgeon who told a local TV news interviewer in January, "We're hurting, our patients are hurting, the community is suffering." It's no secret in Wheeling that Khoury recently built a 12,000-square-foot mansion with a five-car garage, a pool, and a lovely view of the countryside from "Pill Hill," the ritzy neighborhood that's home to many doctors. (According to county building records, the house is valued at close to $3 million, in a town where houses go for as little as $19,000.) Even Zaleski (one of the main doctors complaining) seems to be doing pretty well, despite his claims on television. He says his malpractice insurance of $150,000 a year is about 30 percent of his income, which would net him $300,000 annually. "I'm not starving," he admits.

I'm not saying there aren't frivolous suits. There are. And I'm not begrudging a doctor his $3 million house. I'm sure he earned it. But if a doctor ever accidentally paralyzes you or leaves something inside you that causes a massive infection, my bet is you'll be looking for your own lawyer. I certainly would be.