Dredged and shifted from CE.

I had mentioned about extra tests being performed because they bring in more money...

But a lack of insurance is only one of the two huge problems with health care. The other is the perverse system of incentives that nudges doctors and patients toward expensive tests and procedures when cheaper preventive measures might actually produce better results. Partly as a result, costs are rising rapidly for the 250 million people who do have insurance.

In cardiac care, nuclear scans and invasive procedures like bypass surgery bring in the money. Medicare alone paid almost $15 billion, or about 5 percent of its total budget, for bypasses, stents and other invasive cardiology in 2005, according to Jonathan Skinner of Dartmouth. Yet for many patients, there is no scientific evidence that stents or surgery prolong life.

NY Times

The gist of the article is that, in the current US system, there is very little incentive for preventive medicine - it just doesn't generate any money for the system. This applies to the Canadian system as well, though being not profit driven it is less of a factor.

Thanks, Frank, by the way for your perspective on US health care - I mostly just had the experiences I desccribed to go on.