The New York Times has continued its assault on colonoscopies in its June 1st article entitled “The $2.7 Trillion Medical Bill:  Colonoscopies Explain why U.S. Leads the Work in Health Expenditures.” The Times’ charge that health care costs more in the U.S. is directed against medical services in general, with colonoscopy singled out as a “compelling case study.”  The article claims that they are the most expensive screening test that healthy Americans routinely undergo, with more than 10 million patients purportedly undergoing the procedures every year (a number ten times greater than a decade ago).  Moreover, as is true of many other health care services, screening colonoscopies vary considerably across the country in both the frequency with which they are performed and in pricing.  The Times included data from the Healthcare Blue Book showing that the cost of colonoscopy varied, in metropolitan areas across the U.S., from a low of...