This will never happen, doctor's worry about lawsuits. If government wanted to curb unnecessary testing, they should have reformed lawsuits.

There are many reasons why testing is so over blown, and the profit motive from the doctor is certainly part of it. My child was given an endoscopy so the GI doc could "see what was going on". My Co Pay was over $1000, and the doctor found nothing. This anecdotal incident shows how the entire system of medicine and health insurance has created behaviors that run counter to the goal of providing low cost medicine. Clearly, this was a case of "moral hazard", where the test was ordered without regard to cost, because the insurance was available. The only way to reverse this is to start fresh, and create a market based system where cost competition can keep prices low. Romneycare and Obamacare fail to do this.

Physicians should have strong reasons for ordering procedures. However when they do act positively and limit doing unnecessary procedures it does not touch the bottom line. A professional's income depended on doing these tests so it will drive up the unit price for others. I don't see professionals accepting a cut in their income. True savings only comes from streamlined bureaucracy involving less personnel. The bottom line of medical costs is the number of people involved with payment, delivery, and treatment. Those positions that do little to improve care should be removed and those hard working people transitioned to where they add true value to this economy. This is and continues to be a hard lesson to learn.

To quote H. L. Mencken: For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong. You win that prize today.

If Obamacare is not tossed out, your wish will come true. My mom's life was saved by one of those unnecessary tests.

He wins that prize every day whether he's posting as Ozark, caroe, 127guy, or migh.

I didn't know you could do that, mecn1, or that such information as to how many accounts are held by the same person are available. That does seem like a lot of subscriptions, but then again, I'm a cheapskate.

There is plenty of medical malpractice and few malpractice lawsuits. In Boston you must go in front of a tribunal before you can bring suit. Defensive medicine is a myth propagated by the medical profession. Malpractice insurance premium prices are based mostly on how the insurance company has invested their premium money and their investment returns rather than on large payouts of claims I heartily recommend that everyone should read "THE MEDICAL MALPRACTICE MYTH" by Tom Baker now that physicians are putting together aco's and being paid for not serving their patients then of course this will change A successful malpractice lawsuit helps hospitals to change for the better instead of continuing to ignore their mistakes and bad practices. Change cost money and if a hospital causes injury to a patient nothing will change unless it is brought to the attention of the powers to be that it will cost them money to continually maim and kill their patients from bad practices.