Military or civilian, I simply disagree that physicians should be able to flat out deny care to people based on what they or their insurers pay.
So physicians should be compelled to work for nothing, or at a loss. Sometimes. For the public good.
Why don't we make teachers work for nothing, or at a loss, sometimes? Police? The guys in orange vests who fill potholes near my house? Farmers?
This is of course within reason so that it has no detrimental effects on the overall business or person’s family.
Ah, "within reason" ... therein lies the rub.
How much food should a farmer give away before it's excessively detrimental to his bottom line?
How many days of the year should a firefighter gas up the fire truck on his personal Visa card before it's detrimental to his family?
I would argue, "within reason"
, that compelling physicians to work for nothing (or at a loss) ought to come up against a hard stop at the edge of EMTALA. That's the law that we're all obligated to follow. Any volunteer work or charity beyond that should be commended and respected - not expected.
If you want to argue for a single payer system to solve the problem of access to health care, in exchange for introducing some new problems, OK. But that's not what you're doing. You're playing soft word games with what you think people should do, vs what they should be allowed to do, vs what they should be compelled to do, with all the associated moral and ethical judgments inherent to fuzzy statements with words like "reasonable" in them. It's no wonder you're rubbing people the wrong way.
We can continue to talk about that point if you’d like but I will start reporting direct personal attacks. Similarly you all should report me if you feel like I cross the topic/personal boundary line. My apologies if anything I have said was taken personally, it was not my intent.
We're all friends here.
We all care a lot about the subject.
Re: moderating
I don't see anything here that really deserves reporting or action.
Being a moderator hasn't ever stopped me from getting involved in discussions, nor have I ever felt obligated to be "neutral" on any topic. I confess that I, as one of a handful of active military physicians here who's been basically happy with my experience, occasionally get irritated at some of the constant complainers here. I occasionally
let a little of that irritation show.
Maybe I shouldn't, as part of a moderator's job is to nudge debate toward productive civility, but hey, sometimes people annoy me. I don't report posts in threads that I participate in, unless something clearly egregious or inappropriate happens. If those kinds of threads ever generate reports, I simply recuse myself from any of the deliberation on moderator action. My self-recusal isn't transparently visible to readers so I do worry a little that being a moderator who often argues with people, sometimes a little aggressively and sarcastically, might have a stifling effect on some readers who think I might use my powers to win arguments by silencing opponents.
I know that
@militaryPHYS has no intentions in that direction.
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