An extra test here, an additional procedure there, one more prescription drug to take, just to be sure — pretty soon, it starts adding up, and it doesn’t improve care. Rather, it leads to care of questionable quality and to a healthcare cost crisis, swallowing the budgets of families and small businesses.

It’s obvious that rising prescription drug prices and the monopoly power of many hospitals are driving costs up, but patients also bear an enormous cost from overutilization of tests and procedures, as well as overprescribing.