As the cost of healthcare becomes an increasing focus of
attention, advertising becomes an increasing object of concern.
At its best, advertising can provide information to help
consumers make informed choices. Conversely, it can also
inflate expectations, create demand, manipulate desire, transform
wants into perceived needs, and increase the use and
cost of healthcare services. In the not too distant past,
healthcare was understood as medical care. The activities of
physicians were regulated by standards of ethics that eschewed
commercialism. Though there has always been an
economic aspect (usually a fee) associated with the physician–
patient encounter, the revolution in the financing of
healthcare delivery is transforming the personal doctor–
patient relationship into a socially complex interaction in
which physicians are cast among a multitude of providers,
and patients are transformed into consumers. The focus on
the economics of healthcare underscores the commercial
aspects of healthcare delivery both by physicians and other
providers. Though physicians and not-for-profit institutions
should be responsive to a service ethic, they compete in
the same economic arena as for-profit organizations and
often behave similarly. Furthermore, in some cases the
patients are not the direct consumers; services may be
purchased by employers, alliances, the state, or other contracting
entities, whose interests may not entirely coincide
with those of patients.
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Post je objavljen 17.03.2011. u 14:05 sati.