[Medical ethics in the world's market. Hippocratic fidelity or enterprise fidelity]

The advance which resulted in the mean survival increase from 50 to 75 years between 1920 and 1990 also provoked the rise in health care costs, and the so called "health crisis". In order to contain it, market tactics were put to action, health care was considered a commodity, patients "consumers" and hospitals or physicians "providers". Economists, accountants and business advisors in charge of "Health Maintenance Organizations" (HMO) started the very profitable activity of intervening between patients and physicians. Rationing, use of general practice guides, suboptimal treatments, risk avoidance and other market tactics changed the practice of a profession into a business enterprise. The HMO decides if, when, how and how much will be given to any "consumer". Use of technology more impersonal and easily administered is the leading feature of to-day's medicine over the intellectual activity of the physician who hears, understands, makes the physical examination, diagnosis and treatment. The increasing depreciation of his task obliges the physician to enlarge the number and decrease his communication with his patients. His fiduciary obligation is subordinated to market needs and his practice increasingly compromises his moral integrity. The HMO boasts of the quality of the service given, this is the timely use of to-day's appropriate resources. Nobody wants the 1950 car or medical practice. Tomorrow's practice however depends on increasing knowledge, that is, on research, an activity which is not the HMO object. The academic-medical center, the very place where the interaction of teaching and investigating promotes the excellence is discriminated by the HMO because of its compromise with fiduciary activity imposed by 2500 years of jewish-christian philosophy. The future of these institutions (state's Cinderella's) is progressively compromised; when we loose them how long will it take to recover them? The politicians are always ready to create new hospitals, after they are built consuming large amounts of money, they become disinterested. All hospitals in our country are completely active only 4 hours/day, their physicians travel afterwards to their diverse places of activity consuming much of their time in getting there and complying with the bureaucratic tasks imposed by HMO. In our country with 14% unemployment and 1/3 of the population without any health coverage, the institution of universal health insurance is mandatory. Preventive medicine is not effective for people who lack the means for adequate nutrition, education or transportation, they do not visit doctors or use medicines.