Insurance costs affecting doctors

To the editor:

Doctors in many areas are being robbed of their profession by the high cost of malpractice insurance. Picture, if you will, becoming critically ill and faced with no doctor. Picture also the need of surgery and no surgeon. Imagine a car accident, a serious train derailment or an airline disaster with no doctors. That's exactly what can take place should the cost of malpractice insurance continue to rise.

In spite of all this, however, doctors love their profession. "I like the satisfaction of helping people" are the words my nephew, a doctor in Tulsa, Okla., often uses.

If you think it is easy being a doctor, just try it. If you think it is a joy listening to patients all day, try that too. Neither is getting calls in the night relaxing. I give a person about 10 minutes to endure that routine.

PAULA E. KEMPE

Cape Girardeau