Are High Health Care Costs Tied to Evidence-Based Medicine?

By Dr. Elaina George

Did you ever wonder exactly what evidence-based medicine is? The National Center for Clinical Excellence bases it in on the philosophy "that as much medical practice as possible ought to be carried out using proven algorithms based on empirically valid evidence from controlled scientific experiments, rather than individual clinical judgment." Congressional health care reform relies heavily on both 'evidence-based guidelines' and 'evidence-based individual decision making' to set the standards of care for medical treatment and outcomes. In fact, House bill 3962, in an effort to control costs, creates a new layer of government bureaucracy that inserts itself between the doctor and the patient. [more…]