And if the place is busy it doesn't help to slip the triage nurse a twenty dollar bill. Yet this oasis is also being breached. Fewer employers are providing good health coverage. Medicare is rapidly becoming a two class system. Traditional Medicare doesn't cover everything, but it gives you a free choice of doctor and hospital, and it's mercifully unmanaged.
Nobody keeps a stopwatch by the hospital bed.
Research scientists, who used to accept professional salaries and the reward of a good conscience, are now being encouraged to think more like entrepreneurs. Maybe Sothebys should just auction the stuff off, like Picassos. In Joseph Heller's Catch-22, Captain Yossarian admits he doesn't want to get killed in battle. Major Major demands. It's awfully hard to be the last doctor or researcher working for the good of humanity when everyone around you is cashing in.