Thinking About Health: Low-value medical tests are costly, can lead to harm

People know too well the cost of American health care keeps rising as far as the eye can see. In 1995 health care accounted for 13.4% of gross domestic product; in 2018, it consumed 17.7%. It is projected to rise even more.

Despite all the talk about how they should become wise consumers of medical care, patients can’t really do much to stop the big hospital systems, the big physician groups or the powerful drug companies from charging the prices they do. In our system, those groups pretty much control what medical care costs.

There is, however, one thing patients can do that would contribute...