Justice in Healthcare: Who Deserves to Be Healthy?

Who deserves to be healthy—and who’s responsible for making that possible? In this episode of Top of Mind, we explore one of the toughest questions in modern healthcare: how we decide who gets care, compassion, and lifesaving treatment. A doctor reflects on a moment with a patient that changed his understanding of kindness in medicine. A widow shares the devastating consequences of a transplant policy that kept her husband from getting the organ he needed. And a bioethicist walks us through the uncomfortable reality of deciding who gets lifesaving care when resources are scarce. Original airdate – March 13, 2023 GUESTS Dr. Michael Stein, primary care physician and Chair of Health Policy at the Boston University School of Public Health (https://www.michaelsteinbooks.com/home) Debra Selkirk, Chief Advocacy Officer at the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism and widow of a liver failure patient (https://centerforhealthjournalism.org/debra-selkirk) Dr. Jacob M. Appel, psychiatrist and bioethicist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (https://jacobmappel.com/) Dr. Dayna Bowen Matthew, Dean of the George Washington University Law School and expert in public health and civil rights law (https://www.law.gwu.edu/dayna-bowen-matthew) CHAPTERS (0:00) Introduction (0:57) Beatrice and the Broken Promise (3:17) Kindness Over Judgment (5:47) Empathy Improves Outcomes (8:35) Public Health vs Individualism (13:03) Alcohol and Transplant Fairness (26:09) Social Worth Taboo (27:32) Stewardship and Past Choices (29:07) Vaccine Refusal Priority (31:28) Manufactured Medical Scarcity (34:27) Just Health and Family Story (47:16) Racism Stress and Community Action