Letters to the Editor
Dr_Dredd
Published Letters: 42 Editor's Choice: 1
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That couldn't happen today! *sarcasm*
[Read the article: When the bottom line overrides the Hippocratic oath ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Actually, that probably wouldn't happen in most hospitals. In most hospitals, they'd get the insurance information immediately, and the kid would never even have been put in an ambulance. He would have been left in the community hospital to rot.
As for what incog-nito said about malpractice insurance, you're not taking everything into account when you say health care costs won't drop with capping of malpractice awards. You're forgetting the overwhelming amount of defensive medicine doctors practice. It's sad, but one of the thoughts that go through my mind when I see a patient is, "What would a lawyer think if I didn't order Test X or Procedure Y?" You better believe that's adding to the runaway health care costs.
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@merelymortalmale
[Read the article: HHS: Fear not for your birth control!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't have a problem when others choose to do something different with abortion or birth control than I do. What I do have a problem with is them forcing their choices on everyone else. If you don't like birth control, don't use it. That's fine. But if you're a pharmacist or doctor, you don't get to push your agenda on me. That's taking unfair advantage of the power differential inherent in the provider-patient relationship.
If I walk into a pharmacy with a prescription, I expect to have it filled. If one particular pharmacist can't do it, fine. There needs to be someone on call who can, though. Same thing with doctors. If one can't/won't prescribe birth control, find me one who can. It should be the responsibility of the provider, not the patient, to find a replacement.
Lastly, there will be some pharmacists who think they can not only refuse to fill a prescription, but confiscate it as well. That is absolutely unacceptable. Again, the choice not to use (or even dispense) contraception is fine, but forcing that choice on anyone else is not. Taking a prescription and not returning it is theft, and I would fully press charges if that ever happened to me.