, Columnist
The Huge but Essential Cost of Lung Scans
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The lung-cancer screening that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is now recommending could add at least $3 billion annually in new costs to the already burdened U.S. health-care system. That should worry the Barack Obama administration and anyone else concerned with the system’s stability.
On the other hand, the new recommendation, still in draft form, could save 20,000 lives a year. And policy makers could recoup some of the cost by limiting liability for doctors who follow the guidelines in good faith.