Assisted suicide and how insurers should embrace it

Outrage over an insurance plan offering assisted suicide as an option to a patient:

In July, the Oregon Health Plan injudiciously sent a letter to lung-cancer patient Barbara Wagner denying coverage for the expensive chemotherapy her doctor had recommended, and offering instead to cover palliative care “including doctor-assisted suicide.”

If health insurers were serious about embracing assisted suicide, DrRich has some tongue-in-cheek tips for them.

The last suggestion is a microcosm of how screwed up the physician payment system is:

Make physician-assisted suicide legal, but not reimbursable.

You want to establish it as something that’s front and center, something people will want and ask for and go out of their way to seek. You want to encourage doctors to establish inventive business models for assisted suicide, just as dermatologists have done for Botox clinics.