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damages, when adjusted for population
growth and inflation. The total number of
claims per physician actually declined from
1995 to 2002, and 80 percent of cases were
resolved without payment by the physicians
or hospital.
“When adjusted for Texas’ economic growth,
‘total payouts fell by $6 million annually,’ the
analysis found. The $515 million in malpractice
payouts in 2002 represented 0.6 percent of
health-care spending in Texas that year.
“‘It’s very hard to take the position malpractice
is a major factor in the increases in
the cost of health care,’ Hyman said. ‘The
actual cost of malpractice payouts is really
quite modest.’
“ … ‘Our point, which has been largely
neglected in the furious battle over malpractice
liability, is that attempts to avoid crises in
malpractice insurance prices should focus on
insurance, not litigation,’ wrote the group,
which included two professors at the University
of Texas Law School and William Sage,
a physician and law professor at Columbia
University.”
Thus, while President Bush can rightly
claim credit for many accomplishments during
his presidency, honesty with the American
people about the motivations for tort
reform cannot be counted among them.
Hopefully, Vanderbilt Magazine will conduct
a more thorough critical analysis in the future
before taking any speaker’s comments at face
value. … Perhaps you could invite the president
back to answer the questions raised by
these studies.
Kelly H. Kolb, BA’83
Dallas
Cuba
Thank you for Professor Fernando F.
Segovia’s enlightening article on his return
to Cuba,“40 Years Later: Reflections on Going
Home” [Spring 2005 issue, p. 44].
This extremely well written and informative
piece was gripping from beginning to
end, and opened a window with a view on
Cuba that I had never been afforded before.
I found it instructive and quite enjoyable.
Dr. Yasmine Subhi Ali, BA’97, MD’01
Nashville
I am writing to thank you for publishing
Fernando Segovia’s lecture, “40 Years Later:
Reflections on Going Home.” With sadness
I enjoyed reading it. The Cuba many of us
knew will never again exist but, like him, I
will hold on to that “hopeless hope.”
Olga T. Rust, BS’49
Decatur, Ga.
Kudos
My compliments on an engaging and
thoroughly enjoyable Spring 2005 Vanderbilt
Magazine. This is the first time the new
magazine has caught up with me at my new
address, and I was excited to discover that it
wasn’t what I’ve come to expect from alumni
magazines—something I flip through for
familiar names and then trash—but rather
something I wanted to sit down and read.
I’m impressed with the mix of voices—
faculty, student, freelancer, alum—and points
of view. I’m not sure how you pulled off put-
ting a profile of an athlete and a personal essay
by a novelist in the same publication, but it
works. (Not to mention those stunning photos
of Cuba.)
I write this not just as an alum but as a
writer and university communications professional.
I am a features writer at the University
of Texas at Austin. I wander the UT
campus finding stories to tell, and I’m always
thinking about how we present the university’s
richness to our audiences. I find much to
emulate in this issue of the magazine.
Kudos for a job well done.
Vive F. Griffith, BS’89
Austin, Texas
Peabody–Vanderbilt Merger
Having an affinity for teaching, I chose
[to attend] Peabody and later added a doctorate
in education at the University of Georgia.
My wife, Kathryn, an English teacher, also
profited from courses in library science at [the
V a n d e r b i l t M a g a z i n e 85