Of bureaucrats and bedsores.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)

Ramesh Ponnuru obviously does not want to let the facts get in the way of a good story; his article "Social Injustice" (August 29) begs for correction.

First, the Florida nursing-home bankruptcies were not caused by frivolous lawsuits or runaway verdicts. They resulted from changes in reimbursement in the Medicare and Medicaid systems, associated with Congress's passage of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, which was a response to massive fraud and abuse by the nursing-home providers of the government-funded system. When Congress put the brakes on the industry's fraudulent practices, high-flying nursing-home chains could not service the massive debt they used to fuel their dramatic growth in the 1990s. Their problems were compounded by executives who looted their corporations for perks and compensation.

Second, caps on damages significantly infringe on the right to a trial by jury. If the pending medical-malpractice bill is adopted by Congress, the verdicts and judgments of local juries that hear evidence in particular cases will be overridden by the dictates of deskbound Washington bureaucrats, who have never heard the facts of any specific case. The bill has rightly been characterized as "affirmative action for wrongdoers," since the perpetrators of wrongful acts will no longer have to be fully accountable.

Third, pressure sores are not the inevitable consequence of old age or ill health. And, unlike Ponnuru's claim, they are not "hard to avoid" when proper care is given.

Finally, considering the revelations from the Vioxx scandal, do we really think that ...