Play along...

[tinyjo]

OK, just for fun, here is the essay question I will be answering this afternoon:

‘It is wrong to tell lies, so patients should always be told the truth about their condition.’ Is this a good argument?

I've turned off emailing comments on this and I promise not to look until I've written the essay (1000 words, in case you're interested). What do you think?

Comments

[lady-angelina.livejournal.com]

I've worked in various medical settings, and I've seen doctors do things like declare that a patient has depression (when they didn't really), just so that the insurance company would pay for buproprion for smoking cessation purposes (which the insurance company will not pay for). You could say that the insurance companies themselves are highway robbers unto themselves, but that's not a discussion I care to get into while my brain is still waking up. XD

But yeah. As always, you make lovely points, Prissi. <3

[prissi.livejournal.com]

<3


Yeah, my opinion re: lying to insurance companies is this - really you shouldn't do it because it's better not to lie, but when quality of a patient's life is at stake, or life-saving treatment is needed, I think as physicians and human beings our ultimate responsibility is to other human beings, not corporations. Obviously going to a religious school, the 10 commandments came up during that conversation, and my answer was basically that the first five commandments are about our relationship with God, while the last five are about how we should relate to our fellow human beings. I do believe, ethically and morally and spiritually and whatever else, that our responsibility as *PEOPLE* are to other people first and then only to some giant institution/corporation. You could pick this apart many different ways, and obviously I do not believe that it is ethical or moral to completely ignore the HMOs' rules and regulations just because people >>> corporations, but I do believe that as a general statement, a physician's ultimate responsibility is to humanity, and to do what it takes and what is possible to preserve the quality of life of each patient.

I don't know that I'd be willing to continually record that a pt has depression just so they could get buproprion, something like that done habitually, I feel would compromise my integrity over time. though why the hell do they not cover something like that, I cannot imagine... O_____O smoking being the #1 cause of preventable death and diet & exercise levels being #2... it's gotta cost a lot more to take care of the emphysema and stroke and the other fallout. O___________O seriously? insurance companies don't cover wellbutrin for smoking cessation? there is something seriously wrong here.