Naomi Bluestone

Naomi Bluestone, the author of the following viewpoint, contends that as the health care industry attempts to cut costs and increase its profits, intimacy between health care providers and their patients is being undermined. Bluestone argues that this erosion of physician-patient intimacy—which she believes is a basic human need—will ultimately harm the health care industry by producing demoralized doctors and resentful patients. Bluestone, formerly an assistant commissioner at the New York City Department of Health, runs a private practice of psychiatry in Center Barnstead, New Hampshire.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. Why is physician-patient intimacy so important, according to the author?
2. What should the country demand of its health care system, according to Bluestone?
3. What unethical and criminal behaviors does the author accuse some doctors of engaging in"

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