Nearly Half of All American Households Receive Government Benefits, Doctors and Unnecessary Care, and Sharing Your Medication Deemed Unethical
Nearly half of all Americans live in a household in which someone receives government benefits. At the same time, 45% of all American households are not paying federal income taxes, according to the Tax Policy Center.
NYT odd view of the world: No one wants to bar patients from getting the treatment they need. But doctors who want to provide unnecessary care are everywhere.
Should you share your medications with someone who can’t afford them and needs them more than you do? The (NYT) Ethicist: not unless the health care bureaucracy says it’s OK.
It’s not clear why I should have to ask permission from the “establishment” to share pills, say, with other members of my family. Whose life is it anyway?
Many NYT’s opinions about the world are “odd.”
It is sort of ironic how our society accepts the notion that certain drugs are only available by prescription — requiring a doctor visit to obtain common medications. Once we get prescription pills, we often share them with family members. Yet, at the same time, once pills become available over the counter we readily buy them (but assume they are not as good as the ones our doctor prescribes us).
On the Census Bureau stats, yes. We are going to be in real trouble when half the population has no interest in keeping tax rates down and half are living off of benefits paid for by those taxes.
The most convincing reason not to share the meds: jail time. The least convincing argument on why not to sell the meds: That “society” needs to correct the problem, not the individual.
The existence of a black market for presciption meds is pretty good evidence that the current structure isn’t working. Morality is one thing. Consistent economic incentives (to create black markets) are another. And I would bet on incentives over morality 100% of the time.