But the HMOs threw themselves right in the middle of a situation where life and death decisions were being made and said that they could be trusted to make those decisions. For a money-making corporation to go into the life and death decision business sounds on the face of it to be foolhardy. And it really is. And it is particularly true in this litigious society. They would have to have a private army of lawyers to fight off the litigation and the inevitable bad publicity that they would be getting.
Doctors make the same sort of decisions, but it is easier to trust a single person.
It is difficult to trust the anonymity of a corporation and to know the corporation innately has to please its stockholders and to make a profit by saving on healthcare costs. The astronauts used to joke about how insecure they felt sitting on top of a rocket made of some huge number of parts, each provided by the lowest bidder. THE MT VOID Page 2 Anyone who gets his healthcare from an HMO knows how the astronaut felt. The HMOs currently have immunity from patient and survivor lawsuits. Perhaps they should since juries are tending to give large awards when individuals sue large corporations.