Almost No Medical Consent in America is Informed
Because we don't know the cost beforehand
I had a wonderful interview with Sam Director about how medical informed consent requires knowing the cost of the intervention beforehand. It’s an argument that I’ve been thinking about for a while, so I was very happy when I found his paper.
For what it’s worth, I think the argument is obviously true. Any reasonable person would need to know the price of a medical intervention before giving informed consent. This logic is clear in every context I can think of where the cost can be significant—e.g., a TV, car, sofa, laptop, etc.
The upshot is this: Since Americans systematically don’t know the price of medical interventions until after the fact, it follows that Americans systematically don’t give informed consent.
To be clear, price transparency seems to be getting better, but the burden falls on patients to do the work. So while patients can get price estimates, the system isn’t streamlined enough for patients to realistically shop around, which is what Director wants. I’m not sure what would have to change for that to happen, but I assume it’s very impractical.
For those interested, I published a paper about the concept of subsequent consent, meaning consent given after a medical intervention.