More on how Kate Steadman doesn’t really know what she’s talking about. A medical student theorizes on the rise in defensive medicine:

If we used to feel 99.9% comfortable a patient doesn’t have an aortic dissection, we wouldn’t worry about it. But now, unless we feel 99.999% comfortable, we might as well check. What are the physician’s incentives? If he or she checks, he or she can feel even more comfortable (0.001% more comfortable) that the person is fine, and this means, in many physicians’ eyes, less chance of getting sued. What are the physicians disincentives? Having to interpret the results, good or bad, and hopefully some concern for medical costs, those that are either passed on to the patient or to their insurance company. But really, which will the physician choose?