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Dentists take the Hippocratic Oath just like doctors. First and foremost, this wasn't just a moral failing, this was a major professional violation, regardless

Dentists take the Hippocratic Oath just like doctors. First and foremost, this wasn't just a moral failing, this was a major professional violation, regardless of any government incentives. They put patients in unnecessary risk of complications and likely caused harm in some cases, in direct violation of the one of the most important oaths in any profession. It is the job of healthcare professionals to cater to the health of their patients, not their billing departments. You can't write all laws like we're living in a Mad Max dystopia - some laws will need to assume that other laws are functioning correctly in order to be practically implementable as a law - just like software has dependencies that must uphold some invariants for the interface to work. The issue isn't subsidizing healthcare, it's unethical professionals abusing our trust.

inglor_cz 6y ago
"Dentists take the Hippocratic Oath just like doctors. First and foremost, this wasn't just a moral failing, this was a major professional violation, regardless of any government incentives. They put patients in unnecessary risk of complications and likely caused harm in some cases, in direct violation of the one of the most important oaths in any profession." Generally true, but the judgment call on "is this patient better off by being left alone" vs. "is this patient better off by having a surgery" is not easy, especially in our culture which worships heroic medicine. Patients often demand that something be done because they are primed so from the popular media they consume. This can be even seen in the end-of-life care. Too many families demand that their dying grandma is given expensive and invasive care to live three weeks longer, even though its not just pointless, but outright cruel.
- akiselev 6y ago
  > Generally true, but the judgment call on "is this patient better off by being left alone" vs. "is this patient better off by having a surgery" is not easy, especially in our culture which worships heroic medicine. Patients often demand that something be done because they are primed so from the popular media they consume. That's why it's a problem with professional ethics in healthcare first and foremost. Nobody in the bureaucratic chain is qualified to make or judge medical decisions and them trying would only be a monumental disaster because they don't even meet the patient and they're probably not medical professionals themselves. Hell, the patients and their family are rarely qualified to make the decisions - just look at what doctors chose for end of life care versus what their patients end up doing. The system doesn't work if we don't police the professionals making the decisions at the point of care. The trick is not overdoing it like we did with opiates, scaring doctors from prescribing them even for patients genuinely in need.

inglor_cz 6y ago

"Dentists take the Hippocratic Oath just like doctors. First and foremost, this wasn't just a moral failing, this was a major professional violation, regardless of any government incentives. They put patients in unnecessary risk of complications and likely caused harm in some cases, in direct violation of the one of the most important oaths in any profession." Generally true, but the judgment call on "is this patient better off by being left alone" vs. "is this patient better off by having a surgery" is not easy, especially in our culture which worships heroic medicine. Patients often demand that something be done because they are primed so from the popular media they consume. This can be even seen in the end-of-life care. Too many families demand that their dying grandma is given expensive and invasive care to live three weeks longer, even though its not just pointless, but outright cruel.

akiselev 6y ago
> Generally true, but the judgment call on "is this patient better off by being left alone" vs. "is this patient better off by having a surgery" is not easy, especially in our culture which worships heroic medicine. Patients often demand that something be done because they are primed so from the popular media they consume. That's why it's a problem with professional ethics in healthcare first and foremost. Nobody in the bureaucratic chain is qualified to make or judge medical decisions and them trying would only be a monumental disaster because they don't even meet the patient and they're probably not medical professionals themselves. Hell, the patients and their family are rarely qualified to make the decisions - just look at what doctors chose for end of life care versus what their patients end up doing. The system doesn't work if we don't police the professionals making the decisions at the point of care. The trick is not overdoing it like we did with opiates, scaring doctors from prescribing them even for patients genuinely in need.