Opinion: When costly medical care just adds to the pain

Why, many people ask, shouldn't the richest country in the world spend whatever is necessary to protect and preserve its citizens' health? This is the philosophy under which our healthcare system operates, and it promises to bankrupt us without necessarily improving our health. In more instances than many people realize, doing more medically can be worse than doing less. Too often, costly, overly aggressive medical care causes more pain and suffering than if nothing had been done at all. Our expectations and demands of healthcare must change, and we must reckon with the incentives for tremendous waste that are now built into the system.