Truthiness and paternalism are virulent diseases that undermine every institution they infect:

50% of U.S. Doctors Secretly Dose Their Patients—With the Placebo Effect

The study found that most of the doctors who prescribe placebo treatments typically describe them to patients as “a potentially beneficial medicine or treatment not typically used for their condition.” Read more…

Roy: Single payer system is path to universal care

At the end of a long presentation outlining new services, new doctors, new facilities and a growth in income this year at a rate greater than the growth of the economy, Dr. Kent Palmberg, the unusually savvy and successful senior vice-president and chief medical officer of Stormont Vail HealthCare, sighed and quietly said, "I'm not sure where all this is going, but we'll probably end up with something like Medicare for all."

He added, "I'm not sure that's all bad. They pay promptly, predictably and adequately, with a minimum of paperwork. That beats costly fighting with scores of insurance companies, plus caring for the many uninsured." Read more…

More physicians support single-payer health care

Fifty-nine percent of U.S. physicians now support a federally administered health insurance fund that would guarantee health care coverage for everyone, according to a report published in the April 1 2008 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine. The current support represents a 10 percent increase from a similar national survey in 2002. Among Minnesota physicians, the support for health care financing reform appears to be even higher and tied more specifically to a single-payer system.

It shouldn't have ever been unclear, but now they can say for sure: it's barbaric and some lines have to be held. This is one.

By Andrew Stern

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The American Medical Association on Monday voted to refine its ethical guidelines that forbid doctors from participating in torture or "coercive" interrogations of prisoners.

The action was prompted by unconfirmed allegations that physicians or psychiatrists played roles in harsh interrogations conducted at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, or abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

The 544-member house of delegates, which sets policy for the leading U.S. physicians group, voted at its annual meeting to approve a seven-page report that outlined a physician's duty "as healer" not to take any part in interrogating prisoners.

Other stipulations called for doctors to provide medical care to detainees as they would to any patient -- in strict confidence.

Similarly, doctors are not ethically permitted to participate in executions, or to heal an inmate to make him well enough to be put to death, the AMA said. Read more…