Money

Chapter 2 explores the commoditization of healthcare and how the intrusion of money into the relationship between physician and patient undermines trust in the physician. One of Pindar’s odes links a physician’s receipt of payment to a lack of connection to the patient and a failure to observe moral principles. The same distrust accompanies the circulation of money within the medical profession. A renewed focus on patient care offers one answer to this problem, although this approach creates challenges for proceduralists whose relationship to the patient is often brief. Regulatory efforts to bolster physicians’ relationships to their patients may not be as effective as promoting humanistic ideals.