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TechnoratiI've always paid extra for PPO insurance so I could choose my doctors, rather than being forced to go to someone who takes my insurance or running the gauntlet of authorizations that HMOs require. But even the most rigid of insurance plans allows for some choice of who you go to. Those market forces help keep providers on their toes. We require an exceptionally high standard of probity from our healthcare providers, because of how much depends on it.
A recent scandal at about doctors accepting kickbacks ironically highlights how rare it is for doctors to be accused of corruption. Reading about the modest nature of the kickbacks, and the fact that there is no evidence that anyone received a joint replacement who didn't need one, it seems like a throwback to a more innocent time, particularly when held up next to the muck of contemporary political scandals.
If I hire a dishonorable or sloppy mechanic to fix my car, it causes me temporary problems, even if sometimes severe ones. But if I hire a careless doctor or nurse practitioner, I will live with the consequences for the rest of my life. It is an impossibly high standard to hold another human being to, that they must be more perfect than the rest of us, but it is hard not to, when the quality of a life depends on it.
