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This sounds like a great way to decimate outcomes for marginalized people. Some significant portion of those perceived as "not wanting to help themselves" are going to just be "people who doctors don't give the benefit of the doubt and consistently second guess or underserve." Which is, statistically, women, minorities, and physical outliers (including obese and disabled folk). People already die because they're not believed, or important signs are missed, but I suppose making that incidence even more likely by giving every personally judgmental doctor the license to let their bias bleed into their professional conduct with impunity is just in line with the zeitgeist.

Per your anecdote: yes, the 500-pound people were likely to be dealing with some unknown ailment. Painful as yours likely was, I'm guessing it was simple to triage and determine that you weren't likely to bleed out imminently? While the people who went ahead of you might have been facing any number of life-threatening situations. You don't know, so you don't get to make that call. Duh.

But if we're going down this path, why not add ER fast passes and "tips" that rearrange care order a la Uber? That seems to be the next logical step.





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