An editorial in the San Francisco Examiner tells it like it is:

Next time your doctor orders lots of blood tests and MRIs, you will be experiencing a slice of the estimated $124 billion annually in unnecessary costs imposed on American health care providers through malpractice and other liability lawsuits. Doctors call it “defensive medicine” when they order lots of mostly unnecessary, time-consuming and expensive tests for fear of being sued.

Their fears are well-grounded, thanks to the legions of personal liability lawyers routinely suing doctors, hospitals, nurses, medical suppliers, drug companies and anybody else in the health care system with potentially deep pockets, often for the most tenuous of reasons.