It's not the biggest lever of power, but, those who control health care, control life.

In the extreme case, say, a fully communist country, this could be greatly abused.

At present, in Canada, two patients with similar conditions can go visit the same doctor, and that doctor can chose not to treat one the older one, while choosing to treat the younger one. I know of this happening personally with a family member and a friend of the family. The doctor deemed the older (elderly) patient to not be worth helping, given her age. The middle-aged woman received good treatment, with the doctor slipping in a comment about how it was important because she was younger (and him not being aware that she knew how he treated her older friend).

That's the kind of power I speak of. The doctor was directly responsible, but, the government was indirectly responsible for setting up & maintaining a system which would allow that.

Back when Canada socialized its healthcare system, many decades ago, doctors raised concerns that this would effectively make them government employees (and the potential consequences of that). Those doctors obviously did not get their way.

It's not the biggest lever of power, but, those who control health care, control life.

In the extreme case, say, a fully communist country, this could be greatly abused.

At present, in Canada, two patients with similar conditions can go visit the same doctor, and that doctor can chose not to treat one the older one, while treating the younger one. I know of this happening personally with a family member and a friend of the family. The doctor deemed the older patient not to be worth helping, given her age.

That's the kind of power I speak of. The doctor was directly responsible, but, the government was indirectly responsible for setting up & maintaining a system which would allow that. Back when Canada socialized its healthcare system, many decades ago, doctors raised concerns that this would effectively make them government employees (and the potential consequences of that). Those doctors obviously did not get their way.

It's not the biggest lever of power, but, those who control health care, control life.

In the extreme case, say, a fully communist country, this could be greatly abused.

At present, in Canada, two patients with similar conditions can go visit the same doctor, and that doctor can chose not to treat one the older one, while treating the younger one. I know of this happening personally with a family member and a friend of the family. The doctor deemed the older patient not to be worth helping, given her age.

That's the kind of power I speak of. The doctor was directly responsible, but, the government was indirectly responsible for setting up & maintaining a system which would allow that.