Tom Coburn: “If you look at Thomson Reuters and several others who have studied the health care field, the estimate for defensive…”

“If you look at Thomson Reuters and several others who have studied the health care field, the estimate for defensive medicine costs is $250 billion a year. It is not just that we order tests that protect us from frivolous lawsuits, but those tests have consequences. Some of those tests actually hurt patients or expose them to radiation or, in fact, limit our ability to do what is best for the patient because we are more interested in protecting ourselves.”