The answer, is of course, no-one. And this interesting web site Factcheck.org, a non-partisan organization like the Center for Public Integrity hated equally by everyone, has an article about Bush’s use of Mark McLellan’s research which said that some 8-10% of HC costs were caused by defensive medicine,. It says something I didn’t know which is that the CBO looked into the research and couldn’t duplicate it. But that’s not the real issue. The real question is when those "defensive" tests and procedures were ordered, did the doctors and providers get paid? The answer is of course yes. Which means that getting rid of defensive medicine will mean reducing providers incomes. Is that what the AMA really wants?