Health Costs

In stating “You cannot make life risk-free” (Part A, Feb. 23), President Bush recognized a basic truth that many others intent on reducing health-care costs have failed to recognize.

Uncertainty is ubiquitous in medicine. However, our current health-care system does not recognize this point. The staggering cost of health care, the practice of defensive medicine, and the medical malpractice problem, all cited by President Bush, are manifestations of the failure to adequately control and manage uncertainty.

Research to quantitate uncertainty is needed, and the results should be incorporated into the medical diagnostic and treatment plans as well as into cost-control plans.

Uncertainty is a concept that must be understood by all involved parties: patients, physicians, hospitals, employers, insurers and government.

I cannot conceive of a successful cost-control plan that does not address the uncertainty inherent in the art and science of medicine.

STEVEN L. HERSCH, M.D.

Sherman Oaks