Word: doctor
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...harbor malice, the standards for first degree murder. One defense expert, Dr. Jerry Jones, told the jury that what White suffered from was "not the blues, what you and I call being depressed." It was genetically caused melancholia, "as if the world were viewed through black glasses." Another defense doctor refused to elevate White's condition to a mental illness. He maintained that White was "discombobulated...
...Medicine is inherently a sellers' market. The customer (patient) has no bargaining power; he initiates only one decision?to see a doctor. The sellers (doctors and hospitals) then take over; they decide what services the patient needs, and do not ask but order him to buy. Unable to diagnose his own illness, the patient has little choice but meekly to obey...
Starting with Blue Cross in the 1930s, and continuing through the post-World War II trend for employers to provide medical insurance for their workers, private insurers have picked up a giant chunk of hospital-doctor bills. In 1965 Congress chipped in, providing Medicare payments for those over 65 and Medicaid assistance for the poor. There are still gaps in the coverage: the 20% or so of the bill that the typical Medicare patient must pay can be a severe burden; the long illness that exhausts inadequate insurance benefits is a terror to the middle class. Nonetheless, the system...
...supply of doctors has increased gradually to 2 per 1,000 population from 1.5 in 1960. But to the chagrin of classical market theorist, no competitive fee cutting has occurred. Indeed, one physician calculates gloomily that every time a new doctor begins practice the nation's medical bills go up another $250,000 a year. Reason: the typical physician generates that much additional business in the tests and hospital admissions...
...fumbling attempts to contain costs have not worked. In Massachusetts, for example, Blue Shield has established maximum fees for various medical procedures but so far has refused to tell doctors what the maximums are, lest everybody charge them. Many doctors do anyway. A Boston specialist's secretary explains: "Suppose we charge $45 for a service and then we learn that another doctor is being paid $65 for the same service. We then cannot ask $65 even though we may be as good or perhaps better. Blue Shield permits us to raise our prices by a small percentage from time...