As a physician who left health care in the late 1990’s I say THANK YOU to ProPublica for these aggressive reports. What is the cost and what is the benefit of any treatment or procedure? Is the science statistically AND clinically relevant? Is the science reproducible? Have the new treatments been compared with cheaper, generic alternatives?

We have a “free for all” because the commons and common sense have been removed from medical management. Doctors have magical thinking about their powers and prowess. And patients, want to magically believe in the quick fix.

With insurance (especially for-profit) as the intermediary, doctors who peddle their new and improved high-tech treatments have NO idea what kinds of costs patients incur with cost-sharing. But they are all too ready to blame the government and insurance companies. The latter with good reason. With some double digit increases proposed by insurance companies, Robert Laszewski, a former health insurance executive says, “They’re benefiting from a very positive underwriting cycle. Maybe managed care is finally working.”

I suggest you read “Managing Medical Resources,” an article through JAMA (for a fee that is). http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/297/22/2518

Our healthcare fiasco is the tragedy of mismanaged commons.

We need to change the way we reimburse physicians. Please see:
http://replacetheruc.org/

We need to remove for-profit intermediaries to better manage our health resource dollars. We need to eliminate advertising and marketing that subject both patients and physicians toward health care as a commodity, artificially driving up demand,  and focus on public health.