The Hippocratic Myth: Why Doctors Are Under Pressure to Ration Care, Practice Politics, and Compromise Their Promise to Heal

When patients are ill, they expect doctors to prioritize their health. However, medicine's growing capabilities and rising costs are straining this fundamental promise. Physicians increasingly face pressure from society to ration care and serve interests beyond patient welfare—including health plan administrators, government officials, national security agencies, and courts. Many doctors comply with these demands, sometimes endangering patients and obscuring difficult decisions with scientific language while potentially compromising individual liberties. In The Hippocratic Myth, Dr. M. Gregg Bloche draws on his background in medicine and law to examine how these pressures operate. He documents how doctors are forced to balance caregiving with cost-cutting, how political considerations affect treatment for war veterans, how insurers and hospital administrators push physicians to withdraw life-sustaining treatment against patient and family wishes, and how medicine has become involved in contentious social debates including abortion, child custody, criminal responsibility, and LGBTQ rights. He also addresses how clinical psychology has been used in the war on terror to cause harm. The book challenges readers to recognize these conflicts and argues for doctors to establish a new relationship with patients and society.