Thanks to Kevin, M.D., for letting us guest blog in his absence. We like the serious medical forum he has built.

ThisMakesMeSick has been exposing the nation’s medical liability crisis since Fall 2005 with news nuggets, esteemed guest bloggers, editorial cartoons and juicy comments and astronomical financial costs. Note: we’re not docs OR lawyers. But we’ve got something to say.

We’ve called attention to emergency room hemorrhaging and treating the uninsured here, celebrities getting burned by malpractice and winning lawsuits here, a judge’s overflowing docket because of malpractice lawsuit here, the promise of special health courts here, debated med-mal caps here, and noted a doc in Jersey offering free reconstructive surgery to needy kids only to get the boot from a lawsuit fearing hospital here. Needless to say the liability crisis breeds plenty on which to write.

Read up. Speak out. Tell us WhatMakesYouSick being a doc, a patient, a lawyer or an insurance agent in this maddening environment. The only way a system is changed is if people demand it. Contact us–[email protected]

Today, we note the new TIME mag cover that tells us what scares doc. The answer: being a patient. We understand the idea behind the headline. But it still brings a chuckle.

More to come this week.