A major contributor to the lack of medicines in developing countries is an intellectual property regime that allows proprietary drug companies with intellectual property monopolies to charge high prices and maximize profit.
Undocumented patients in the United States with end-stage renal disease receive “compassionate” dialysis. Such patients oscillate between being marginally well and “ill enough” to receive dialysis while clinicians wrestle with complicity in a system that both offers and withholds life-saving therapy.
AMA J Ethics. 2018; 20(8):E778-779. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2018.778.
The all-payer rate setting model of pricing combines a uniform payment method with a single rate that all private and public insurers pay for a specific service, thus improving price transparency for patients.
AMA J Ethics. 2015; 17(8):770-775. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2015.17.8.pfor1-1508.
Dr Kaarkuzhali B. Krishnamurthy joins Ethics Talk to discuss her article: “Should Physicians Be Able to Refuse to Care for Patients Insured by Medicare?”