EIGHT GOOD REASONS
WHY CAPITALISM AND HEALTH CARE DON'T MIX

From ZNet:

Two weeks ago both the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times ran front page articles about accussations against Medco, a subsidiary of Merck & Co. over false statements and claims to the government. This is in addition to investigations of Medco over violations of anti-trust, consumer-protection and pharmacy-licensing laws by at least 25 state attorney generals. Chief federal prosecutor in Philadelphia, Patrick Meehan said: these allegations suggest that, somewhere along the line, the focus became the profit instead of the patient. (FT, June 24, 2003)

Somewhere along the line a capitalist corporation chose profit over the patient? Stop the presses. This is scandalous. A for-profit corporation, Medco, is accused of throwing ethics out the window to focus on increasing its return on investment.

Should we be surprised that much of medicine is driven by much the same interest as the rest of our profit driven economy? If we are, it is only because we project our values that medicine is about healing and nurturing onto the medical industry. We forget that the only reason today's medical establishment appears even slightly humane is as a result of struggles by ordinary people for regulations of medical practices. We overlook the fact that the medical industry, like capitalist enterprise in general, is structured to make a buck no matter the human, social or ecological costs.

For the eight reasons, click here.

Capitalism has no heart.

Simply put, the money-making imperative of capitalism and the care-giving imperative of medicine contradict one another. As the Hippocratic Oath says, "I will prescribe regimen for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgement and never do harm to anyone." The insurance companies would have doctors add the clause "as long as there is a lot of money to be made."

Disgusting.

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