Congressman Tom Price (R-GA) issued the following statement highlighting a recent Gallup Poll in which physicians estimated that 21 percent of everything they do can be attributed to the practice of defensive medicine. The cost of these actions is estimated to be 26 percent of health care spending, or more than $650 billion every single year.

“Physicians enter the field of medicine to help others, but as this poll indicates, they’re forced to practice defensive medicine with alarming regularity,” said Congressman Price. “Defensive medicine isn’t an abstract notion, and it could be responsible for more than $650 billion in unnecessary health care spending every single year. If 26 cents out of every dollar a widget maker spent was aimed at preventing abusive lawsuits, you’d see the cost of widgets skyrocket, too. Common sense tells us the status quo must change. Rising costs are the single biggest concern most Americans have about health care. Comprehensive reform of medical malpractice abuse would do wonders to stem the rising cost of care, but the token lip-service paid to malpractice reform in the President’s plan doesn’t even begin to address this problem. Americans can’t afford to leave over $650 billion on the table every single year.”