In this report
Overview

Your letters

Last reviewed: January 2010
January 2010 issue cover This article appeared in
January 2010 Consumer Reports Magazine.

The eyes have it

Another warning to add to Laser Surgery: Go in With Your Eyes Open (Up Front, November 2009) is that if you later have to have cataracts removed, it is more difficult for the surgeon to make the implanted lens the precisely correct prescription. It will help if you save the measurements that are taken prior to the Lasik surgery.

Carol Agate
Cambridge, MA

 

Hospital errors

Doctors, Admit Your Mistakes (Health, November 2009) echoes a call most consumers and doctors can rally behind. Unfortunately, this is not feasible for the majority of doctors outside of academic institutions conducting regular "Morbidity and Mortality" conferences. There needs to be a framework where doctors can admit mistakes and hospitals can track this information without threatening the doctors who cooperate with retaliatory litigation. Only then will error reporting become encouraged and procedures become safer for both patients and doctors.

Josh Kirshtein
Charleston, SC

 

Controlling credit

Take Control of Your Credit Cards (November 2009) was very informative, but missed the point in some cases. Many of the excessive fees listed are assessed when card payments are missed, which should be avoidable if one has a money-management plan.

Those with median incomes above $75,000 who are forced to use credit cards to finance car repairs, vet bills, groceries, etc., and have no emergency fund, are indeed "living large" compared to people living on half that income. There are many problems with credit-card companies, but when we as consumers can't manage our own money, we only fan the flames by the irresponsible use of credit.

Joseph Mayes
Mead, WA

 

Correction

In the Ratings charts for LCD and plasma TVs in the December issue, several listed models are missing data. See our updated charts. To receive the corrected charts by mail, call 800-333-0663. Our March issue will include Ratings of new LCD and plasma TVs and those we've recently tested that are still available.

 

To send a letter to the editor, go to www.ConsumerReports.org/lettertoeditor