A new report (news release) by CALPIRG health care advocate Michael Russo finds that "More health care spending doesn’t always equal better health." Among the key findings of the report -- Diagnosing the High Cost of Health Care: How Spending on Unnecessary Treatments, Administrative Waste, and Overpriced Drugs Inflates the Cost of Health Care in California -- are the following:

The report examines three areas where billions of dollars are spent without providing any benefit to patients:

the overuse of invasive treatments, intensive services,

hospitalization; excessive administrative costs;

and the marketing of prescription drugs that encourages the use of unnecessary, more expensive drugs.