Patients Are Not Consumers - By Paul Krugman

[kpete]

April 20, 2011, 6:31 PM
Patients Are Not Consumers
Paul Krugman

I keep encountering discussions of health economics in which patients are referred to as “consumers”, after which the usual mantra of freedom of choice is invoked on behalf of voucherizing Medicare, or whatever.

We used to know better than this.

Medical care is an area in which crucial decisions — life and death decisions — must be made; yet making those decisions intelligently requires a vast amount of specialized knowledge; and often those decisions must also be made under conditions in which the patient is incapacitated, under severe stress, or needs action immediately, with no time for discussion, let alone comparison shopping.

......................

The idea that all this can be reduced to money — that doctors are just people selling services to consumers of health care — is, well, sickening. And the prevalence of this kind of language is a sign that something has gone very wrong not just with this discussion, but with our society’s values

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/20/patients-are-not-consumers/

[TheKentuckian]

1. Consequentially, "reform" is built on a foundation of powdered sugar.

The whole fucking basic premise is the "wise consumers of health care" crap the Republicans have been trying to sell with little success for decades.

[notadmblnd]

2. I heard my neice (who works with patients in a group home setting) use that term to describe

he patients about 10 years ago. I called her on it then. She told me that management required them to refer to their patients as consumers. I told her it was wrong, and I still think it's wrong.

[raging_moderate]

17. they're not customers

Every time I hear an administrator call our patients "customers" I call them on it. I tell them it's inaccurate, demeaning, and insulting to try and characterize the work that physicians and nurses do as something that equates to selling shoes.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. HIs logic is irrefutable.

Recommended.

[Zorra]

4. I detest that word. If somebody calls me a consumer, they'll get an earful.

Paul Krugman is the best.

[ck4829]

5. Calling patients consumers is just more Mr. Krabs Capitalism for you

The "free market" means that the only parties involved in economic decisions are the buyer and the seller.

When you're bleeding out or if you've got an appendix about to burst, there's no way it can be called "free market" anymore.

[abelenkpe]

25. Mr Krabs

That is awesome. ;)

[slipslidingaway]

6. knr nt

[cilla4progress]

7. Keep your profit motive

out of my health care!

[leftstreet]

8. Medicare For All NOW

K&R

[woo me with science]

9. K&R nt

[handmade34]

10. calling us consumers...

whether as patients needing health care or otherwise, reduces us to a number (or statistic) on some corporatist's spreadsheet...

we are citizens, neighbors, community members, friends, etc...

[flamingdem]

11. Sadly I've seen this attitude in my own doctors more lately

like a mechanic's shop you've got to watch the bill.. and what they say you need.. and how they try to control you over getting more $

[whathehell]

12. Oh well, people who work for a living are just "human resources" now...Same idea, I'm afraid.

I agree with Krugman.

[bvar22]

13. Someone should have told the White House.

”In a Thursday interview, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel argued that rather than recoiling against Obama, business leaders should be grateful for his support on at least a half-dozen counts: his advocacy of greater international trade and education reform open markets despite union skepticism; his rejection of calls from some quarters to nationalize banks during the financial meltdown; the rescue of the automobile industry; the fact that the overhaul of health care preserved the private delivery system; the fact that billions in the stimulus package benefited business with lucrative new contracts, and that financial regulation reform will take away the uncertainty that existed with a broken, pre-crash regulatory apparatus.

http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=B2F85DDF-18FE-70B2-A835FE1E7FA8D74C

"Preserved the Private Delivery System"
We all ALL "customers" now!

[DirkGently]

14. All society is not a Buyer Beware transaction. Or it shouldn't be.

[cyberpj]

15. Krugman's on FIRE lately. KRUGMAN FOR PRESIDENT! . KRUGMAN 2012! . nt

[rgbecker]

20. I'm with you.... Draft Krugman!

[McCamy Taylor]

22. Corporate fascist America would never let him through the starting gate.

[Horse with no Name]

16. THANK YOU. As a nurse I find this extemely misleading.

I will relate more when I can figure out how to word it.

[GreenTea]

19. "Misleading" how about completely insulting & insensitive?

My wife, who is also an RN, is how she would describe the slimy fucking republicans & corporate terminology I'm sure!!

[Horse with no Name]

29. Of course it is that, but it is also misleading

Everytime I try to explain what I mean I delete it because what I am trying to say doesn't come out correctly.

[quaker bill]

18. I can has my appendix out at Joe's for $25.00

Alternately, I can go to a hospital and pay a few thousand... I think I will save the money. Sterile conditions are really over hyped.

[McCamy Taylor]

21. Doctors have been saying this for years. The HMOs started the trend.

[moondust]

27. That's how I remember it as well.

Primarily during the 1980s (Reagan years) HMOs were taking over more and more control of the health care system. That old capitalist magic was going to save us. :eyes:

I remember one story about an HMO CEO in Florida who built his own private golf course in the back yard of his mansion. :eyes:

[Beartracks]

23. K&R!!!!

[w8liftinglady]

24. Dammit! I picked the wrong time to try to open free clinics in Texas

We lead the nation in uninsured and medicaid...my clinics will offer preventative and chronic care to the uninsured...shit! Bad timing.

[WillyT]

26. HUGE K & R !!!

:kick:

[Bake]

28. Krugman nails it YET AGAIN!!

Bake

[dflprincess]

30. The one that drives me nuts is when high deductible insurance scams

are called "Consumer Driven Health Plans". These are sold to employers telling by telling employers that their health insurance costs will drop (or go up at a slower rate) because people who have to spend more money out of pocket will be smarter "comsumers". This continues despite growing evidence that these plans increase costs because people with these plans are more apt to put off care until it becomes critical. In reality, this sort of "covrerage" should be called "don't get sick" plans.

BTW these plans are not only permitted, but encourage under the "reform" package the Democrats sold out on.