Comment Re:If a Medical Doctor was involved in the collect (Score 1) 99
I hope you're making a mistake in saying that patients don't make all the key decisions about health care, at least when it comes to their own care. See, most hospitals I've ever gone to have this big thing about consent. You must consent to care before it will be given. Sometimes that consent is pretty broadly written, but consent can be dialed back to only those things you actually consent to. To the point about whether they know what they're deciding or not, that doesn't matter from this standpoint because if they don't understand, the professional advising them should do their best to inform them the implications of what was found, what the outcomes are, and what can be done to treat it. That turns simple consent into 'informed consent', a term brandished about the profession.
The decision on what to do ultimately rests with the patient, as the patient must give consent for it. If you don't include consent into the mix for patient care, then you subjugate anyone with a 'medical ailment' to someone else's will and force on them something they may not want. Last I checked, we consider force in that instance to be wrong, with possible exceptions in times when consent cannot be obtained for people certified to be unable to give consent (incapacitated, mentally ill, etc). Even then, though, someone deemed responsible for that patient is asked instead, if available.
Issues about cost, payment and the like are irrelevant from the decision standpoint, and something that the hospital or medical professional can make sure the patient is able to pay, first, before costly treatments. If unable, the hospital, to my knowledge, does not have to provide care outside of ER scenarios.