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Doctors are often considered angels of sorts. They work unprecedented hours and perform procedures that some call miracles everyday. However, the healthcare system in which they work under is only accessible to those with finances and out of reach for those affected by the ailing economy and financial hard times. A new perspective takes a negative look at doctors and brings into question whether doctors are partly to blame for American healthcare system that fails to provide affordable health insurance and thus adequate care for everyone.
According to the New York Times, a national leader in bioethics has cast his critical eye on doctors saying they have not done their part to help patients. Bioethics professionals are often called on to give their views on patients right and moral concerns in the medical field. In an editorial in The New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Howard Brody, professor of family medicine and director of the Institute for the Medical Humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, writes that the medical profession, unlike other groups, has made little effort to curtail future medical costs. Physicians, Dr. Brody maintains, are not “innocent bystanders” to spiraling health care costs but have been complicit in their failure to take an active role in curtailing them.
Doctors have skated below the radar during the entire health debate on the Hill. However, Brody feels lawmakers should address the role of doctors. He feels most physicians don’t put the interests of patients before their incomes and other motives. Brody says doctors ought to be honest about what technological procedures are increasing healthcare costs and helping few people.
Senators have not been able to agree on terms for fixing the health system that has left millions of people without good medical insurance and many others under-insured. President Obama is working on a final bill that he feels will remedy the healthcare problem. It is unclear what his final provisions will include and whether enough Democrats will get behind the bill.
Tags: affordable health insurance, health bill, healthcare, President Obama
