All Parties Ignore the One Way to Reduce Health Care Costs: Single-Payer

[JDPriestly]

4. Those tests save lives.

Of course, not all of the tests are "needed," but doctors save lives when they leave no stone unturned, no possibly useful diagnostic tool unused.

Being a doctor is a huge responsibility, and I can imagine that no doctor wants to have to say, "my patient would have lived if I had only done another x-ray that could have caught today what the x-ray yesterday could not catch." That happens. Sometimes a condition becomes worse overnight and yesterday's test or x-ray is useless.

We have to decide whether we want doctors to provide the best healthcare they can or the cheapest healthcare they can. There is a middle ground, but it will cost lives, I suspect.