[quote=ocrenter][quote=Arraya]http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/31/would-tort-reform-lower-health-care-costs/
That’s wildly exaggerated. According to the actuarial consulting firm Towers Perrin, medical malpractice tort costs were $30.4 billion in 2007, the last year for which data are available. We have a more than a $2 trillion health care system. That puts litigation costs and malpractice insurance at 1 to 1.5 percent of total medical costs. That’s a rounding error. Liability isn’t even the tail on the cost dog. It’s the hair on the end of the tail.[/quote]

the issue here is the FEAR of litigation. All it takes it one lawsuit to bring a doctor’s world upside down for years, regardless of how valid the lawsuit is. So here’s a question: is it easier for a doctor to just order the chest x-ray or take the risk that he/she might miss something and end up with a lawsuit on his/her hand.[/quote]

yeah, that makes sense. People are lawsuit happy, these days.