Sandel Blog Post

I agree with Sandel that it is a cause for concern to have everything for sale, especially the things on his list that one can buy that only serves the purpose of more convenience. One example of this is patients buying their doctors cell phone number. If people need immediate medical advice and/or appointments they can get it from a number of other places. Yes, given going these places, such as an urgent care center, the emergency room, 911, etc., aren’t as convenient as calling your doctor whenever, I still think it’s a wrong and misused usage of the resource. Doctors have lives outside of their work; part of the reason we have other medical resources set in place is so that doctors don’t have to work 24/7. If you need an appointment the same day you call your doctor and if it’s not an emergency, then that’s just for the persons convenience. Even if it was an emergency calling and/or going to your doctors right away I think would be sort of a waste and not a good idea. This is because only hospitals and emergency rooms care for emergencies most of the time, so most likely your doctor won’t even be able to directly help you; therefor you’re paying for an in between step that’s pretty unnecessary in cases like this.

                An objector might say that it would save money in the long run; that even though they’re paying a large amount of money every year for this service, it’s still not as much as having to use another service. Or if it is more or equal, one might say that it’s worth it for convenience sake.  What I have to say to this is, in general I believe having your doctors cell phone number is in a way an invasion of their privacy; you are over using the resources that your doctor has instead of using other sources of medical care.