Economist estimates US spends up to $60 billion annually on defensive medicine.

In the New York Times (9/22) Economic Scene column, according to Harvard economist Amitabh Chandra, "$60 billion a year, or about three percent of overall medical spending, is a reasonable upper-end estimate" of what is spent on defensive medicine in the US. Leonhardt argues that the current "malpractice system does" indeed "affect the morale of doctors," leaving "them wondering when they will be publicly accused of doing the very thing they've sworn not to do: harm patients."