Has society in the USA really given informed consent to managed health care?

Abstract

It is the assertion of this paper that the current environment of applied managed care in the United States amounts in effect to bio-medical experimentation with humans as the subjects. The ethical dilemma of using humans as subjects of experimentation with unsure outcomes has been addressed historically. Perhaps the most famous attempt at delineating permissible behavior is the Nuremberg code of 1947. While stopping short of the logical extreme--accusing the managed care drivers of being war criminals--this text illustrates the unsatisfactory nature of the current health-care status quo, and proposes alternative means by which economic savings may be realized for the benefit of society, without violating the social obligation to provide health-care. Among the strongest proposals is that ethical or moral constraints may need the protection of regulation (legislation and possibly federal regulation) by and for the common good of the United States' society as a whole.