Suicide is also a problem even among those who are thought to be enjoying the good life, including young physicians, reports the Wall Street Journal:
“The fact that the medical profession has one of the highest rates of burnout and suicide, compared to other professions, speaks to the urgent need for change,” Mortimer told The City, a local news site, in November 2022.
Historically, risks were often from natural causes. Fires, extreme weather, infectious disease, food poisoning, etc. As Vox Media points out, risks have proliferated in the past century.
Today about three-quarters of physicians have a boss. They are employees of hospitals, private equity-owed group practices, and even work for retail clinics. The trust doctors and patients may have shared in 1963 is eroding due to insurance coverage, time constraints and even perverse medical norms.
Whether or not it is a good idea to mandate preventive service is a worthy debate. The problem with mandates is that without hospitals and health plans competing on the basis of price, quality and other amenities, the services are likely to become worthless.