Direct-to-Consumer Marketing

To the Editor: There is a conflict between the conception of health care as a free-market economic process and the notion that health care represents one of society's obligations to its citizens. We cannot have it both ways. Physicians are also caught between these two incompatible views. In a free-market system, physicians charge whatever the market will bear and limit the amount of charity care they provide in order to maintain profitability. Those who cannot pay simply do without care. Drug companies and owners of high-technology machines hawk their wares in any way they wish (including direct-to-consumer marketing as discussed . . .