"It is my privilege and duty to care for people who come to see me ---- as patients. There is a respect involved with that term which is absent from the term consumer, and which is important in maintaining the dignity of the individual."
"A few years ago I realized that my bonus, based on my "quality" management of diabetes, was compromised by the poor quality of my patients. I then dismissed many of the alcoholics and non-compliant (more correctly, I maneuvered them to dismiss me -- much less hassle); and my bonus scores have greatly improved. I thought I was clever, but I've come to believe that this is exactly what the the network, the insurance companies, and the gov't, wants me to do."
"Men of broader intellect know that there is no sharp distinction betwixt the real and the unreal; that all things appear as they do only by virtue of the delicate individual physical and mental media through which we are made conscious of them; but the prosaic materialism of the majority condemns as madness the flashes of super-sight which penetrate the common veil of obvious empiricism."
"Menschen können nie Handelsware werden – auch nicht ihre Gesundheit und - nach meinem Dafürhalten - auch nicht als „Arbeitskräfte“. Diese soziale Frage ist in gar keiner Weise gelöst und die durchgehende Ökonomisierung des Gesundheitswesens der falsche Weg."