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editorial

Doctors should take responsibility for cutting unnecessary procedures

  May 03, 2012

The best hope for achieving significant savings in medical costs is through the elimination of unnecessary or duplicative procedures. Government attempts to set boundaries inevitably run into cries of “death panels” and prideful reactions from many doctors. But so many factors complicate that decision — from patients’ demands to doctors’ financial interests and fear of lawsuits — that a system with no boundaries is completely untenable and immoral, in the sense that some patients are exposed to unnecessary risks.

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