That is true, but we also get a lot of things we don't need because the provider knows that insurance will reimburse it. My wife spent some time in the hospital recently and the number of tests they performed was truly staggering. When I asked the technician performing one of the scans what it would show, his response was "probably nothing, but we just do it because we can."

I contrast that with my experience in my home country when I ruptured my ACL and required surgery. I visited the specialist who immediately diagnosed the problem after a quick exam and told me that we could do an MRI but that would be a waste of time as it wouldn't reveal anything we didn't already know. I was booked in for surgery the next day with a minimum of fuss.