Nevada medical malpractice cases were put on the road to extinction several years ago by a voter-approved initiative that restricted lawsuits to such an extent that many attorneys stopped practicing in this area altogether.

I still do and will continue to. But I've noticed that as medical malpractice lawsuits have become more limited, doctor's expert fees have continued to spiral.

Several days ago I was setting expert depositions in a malpractice case. Defense counsel mentioned that her expert would require $3000 to testify. My expert depositions usually take an hour. Hence, her expert wanted $3000 to testify for an hour. I complained about this and indicated that we would likely seek court intervention to lower the expert's fee.

Then, however, we called our own expert in the case.

He casually mentioned that his minimum deposition fee was $4000.

I guess I won't be contesting the other side's expert fee.

Menu Foods has recalled over 90 brands of pet food for dogs and cats and that has many worried. The recall involves wet canned and foil package pet food in the "cuts and gravy" style and includes major brands such as Iams and Eukanuba as well as store brands. Most stores have pulled all of the recalled food from their shelves.

Some of the 60 million cans and pouches of pet food have been blamed for kidney failure in scores of animals and killed at least 16 pets. Neither the manufacturer nor authorities have been able to determine why the pets died.

Since Friday, nearly 100 brands of the cuts-and-gravy style of food have been recalled by Menu Foods of Canada, including popular labels sold at Wal-Mart and other large retailers.

Veterinarians are directing most questions to the Food and Drug Administration's recall Web site. Some have agreed to run blood tests on pets, even though many of the animals have not consumed any of the recalled brands.

The recall is voluntary, so stores are not required to stop selling the recalled food. It is up to consumers to be vigilant and watch out for their pets. Signs of kidney failure include increased thirst, loss of appetite and lethargy.

I was watching a back episode of West Wing last night.

The presidential candidate played by Jimmy Smits had a health plan: take the words "over 65" out of the Medicare statute. Allow Medicare for all.

It's an interesting idea.

Probably 40% of my clients do not have health insurance. Something like 50 million Americans do not have health insurance. Lately, our local hospitals here in Reno are actually turning people away unless they have health insurance.

We spend a lot of money on a lot of things: one would think that we'd find a way to get basic health care to American citizens.

I deal with Medicare quite a lot. It can be a disorganized and frightening bureaucracy.

But providing some form of national allowance to health care is an idea whose time has come.

I've tried to provide practical advice with my blogs. I don't repeat news stories about car accidents as a rule, and I try to set out information that Nevada legal consumers can use.

This blog is no exception and I have one simple message: when it comes to health care, everything is negotiable.

A while back, 60 Minutes did a story about the advantages of having health insurance to cover a hospitalization. We know, of course, that it's better to have health insurance. But what many still don't understand is that health insurance companies pay much less for your health care than you would if you were uninsured.

In other words, when you go into a hospital, without insurance, you get a bill for the retail cost of services.

It's therefore important, and smart as well, to attempt to negotiate such bills directly with hospital. After all, they're getting less for similar services from almost everyone who pays them.

Nearly all hospitals, and most health care providers, too, would rather get something rather than nothing.

It's perfectly appropriate to ask for a 20 to 40 percent reduction in your hospital bill if you are uninsured. And besides, what do you have to lose other than debt?