In Cheaper Medicines Not Always Better, medical expert Peter Pitts, President, Center for Medicine in the Public Interest and former associate FDA commissioner writes:
There are several reasons such a policy hurts our health system. For one, it is an assault on the relationship between physicians and patients. When a doctor decides on a treatment, he is employing years of medical experience and weighing countless factors, like the patient’s age, diet, and lifestyle. Patients, meanwhile, trust that the doctor knows best.
When it’s possible for a health care bureaucrat to override the decision of a trained medical professional, this valuable association between a patient and his doctor breaks down. A patient is no longer under the care of single medical expert, but is now being treated by faceless organization looking to cut corners.
This breeds distrust among patients, but it also results in worse medical outcomes and higher overall costs.
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