I think that there's something a little more insidious (not evil insidious -- just hidden insidious) than doctors just doing it *because they were taught that way* to the ordering of all tests.

Yes, I agree that it has to do with CYA for lawsuits. That may even be the biggest factor.

But the other factor is that everyone thinks they're a doctor these days. Sit around and chat with a doctor for a while and the discussion is bound to soon come up -- a large percentage of their patients comes into their appointments loaded for bear.

They've seen all the advertisements for prescription drugs and think they know what's best for them. Additionally, alternative medicines have made a huge comeback and REALLY well-educated people are regularly duped by quackery -- but they are sure they know more than their doctor. And they've been watching every doctor-on-TV show from Marcus Welby M.D. to House. They know what an MRI is for dad-gummit, and they expect it.

It will take some getting used to practices with only government owned equipment. For an MRI one will probably have to travel a bit (All those European countries that are socialized have about the area in miles of one of our States) until the cost of equipment like that goes way down and more machinery can be disbursed everywhere.

Lots of our hospitals are incorporated too. The stockholders (workers with their retirement accounts diversified through mutual funds etc.) will lose the value in medical stocks (just as the average worker did with the enron scandal when the savy saw the collapse but didn't share the info) as they become completely worthless. Maybe with enough lead time the savy ones can pull their medical stocks and reinvest them into something else.

Of course, those hospitals will still exist complete with whatever equipment they already have -- assuming that the government will send government doctor/managers to the hospitals that already know what's what. They'll probably just maintain as much of the staff that a hospital currently has that is willing to work for the government.

And, in reality, those who are put out of business, like my brother, will be selling their services a penny on the dollar at first because their cost of living won't just disappear just because they no longer have their own practices. So government run facilities will probably have a bit of a glut of doctors for a while. Then they can start tracking young students and grooming them as medical workers in the new system. They can manage the number of doctors to make sure that there aren't too many new ones coming into a glutted system, or give incentives to more students if they anticipate a doctor shortage.