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Hi. I’m Arthur Caplan. I’m at the NYU School of Medicine where I run the Division of Medical Ethics. A recent article by scholars at the Hastings Center, a bioethics think tank in Garrison, New York, made an interesting point: The authors said they didn’t think that patients should be viewed as consumers.[1]
I really agree with that argument. I also would argue that doctors should not be viewed or referred to as providers. In our healthcare system, more and more, the language of business is shaping and changing descriptions of what doctor-patient encounters are all about.
The Hastings scholars said that talking about patients as consumers implies choice and activity that patients and would-be patients don’t engage in. For example, if I’m a consumer, I might be buying beer, or trying to figure out where to go on vacation or what hotel to stay in. I can search websites and find information on products. I can certainly price-shop a little bit, if I choose to, and find the best deal.
