WHEN YOU BUY SOMETHING from eBay, you can check out the seller before you purchase. It's a simple system of feedback from other people who have done business with the seller. And as a consumer, you hold some power. If you aren't treated well, you can tell the world. And the seller knows that. They value their quality ratings. People want to buy from sellers with high levels of satisfaction.

Why not do this with the medical profession? Why not have a way to read the feedback from other people who've bought medical services from this doctor and be able to seek out doctors with high levels of quality service?

It would benefit the patients. There's no doubt of that. Being able to hear what other patients have to say about how this doctor treated them would certainly encourage the doctors to treat their patients well. And the better their ratings, the more they could charge, so it would be good for the doctors, too. Well, at least it would be good for the good doctors.

It wouldn't be so good for the bad doctors. Doctors have done a terrible job of policing themselves. Many doctors that have done poor quality work are still in practice. The system doesn't have a good way to get rid of bad doctors, and it's the bad doctors who drive up the malpractice insurance! It's the bad doctors who get sued the most. It's bad medical practices that drive up the costs for everyone. We must find a way to get rid of bad doctors and poor medical practices and we can do that easily by installing an Internet rating system to help people choose the right doctor.

Insurance companies would probably eventually have lower premiums for the doctors with the best ratings, again improving both costs to everyone, and quality of service. It would help drive bad doctors out of business and make it easier for good ones to stay in practice.

We, the people, are going to have to fix this medical system. Or the government will come in a take it over and you don't want that any more than I do. Business — and doctoring is a business — needs to be free of the government, its red tape, its sluggish response to need. We need to keep our medical professionals free. And the medical professionals are just as trapped as the patients are. But the lawyers and the insurance companies are doing just fine, thank you. The lawyers abuse the system to milk as much money as they possibly can. Insurance companies are not suffering financially. Because of what lawyers are doing, doctors pay higher and higher malpractice insurance, and then you and I have to pay higher medical insurance.

There is a risk when you go in to surgery. Doctors cannot possibly be expected to save everyone. They do their best. Sometimes their best isn't enough. But we as patients must accept some of the responsibility. Doctors are not gods. They are not magicians. They just try to help people, and sometimes it doesn't work. All that matters is they do their best. And the only way you know if your doctor is doing her best is to ask those who have already done business with her.

We can save our health care system if we would make a rating system, where you could look up doctors and read short comments of what other patients have said. It would benefit the patients. It would benefit the good doctors. And it would keep our health care system out the hands of our government, where surely, things will just slowly deteriorate.