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Previous Volume 341:444-446 August 5, 1999 Number 6 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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Few trends could so thoroughly undermine the very foundations of our free society as the acceptance by corporate officials of a social responsibility other than to make as much money for their stockholders as possible.

— Milton Friedman¹

Market medicine's dogma, that the profit motive optimizes care and minimizes costs, seems impervious to evidence that contradicts it. For decades, studies have shown that for-profit hospitals are 3 to 11 percent more expensive than not-for-profit hospitals^2,3,4,5,6,7; no peer-reviewed study has found that for-profit hospitals are less expensive. For-profit hospitals spend less on personnel,^2,3,5,6 avoid providing charity care,^4,8,9 and shorten stays. . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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