Editorial - Words of wisdom for 2017: 'The healthcare industry is headed for turbulent times.'

Probably the best thing that can be said about 2016 is that it's finally over. Alas, 2017 doesn't hold much promise, either. The healthcare industry is headed for turbulent times.

The Affordable Care Act, which provided more than 20 million Americans with health insurance coverage and is having another record-breaking sign-up season despite the election results, appears headed for extinction. What it will be replaced with exactly, no one knows.

In thinking about what advice to offer the incoming Trump administration, soon-to-be HHS Secretary Dr. Tom Price, and designated CMS administrator Seema Verma, I instinctually reached for the Hippocratic oath's injunction to “first, do no harm.”

However, in my internet searching to ensure a proper quotation, I learned the phrase doesn't even appear in the ancient Greek. The closest approximation, according to a 1943 translation by Ludwig Edelstein published by Johns Hopkins Press, says: “Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice, of all mischief and in particular of sexual relations with both female and male persons, be they free or slaves.”

That's the ancient Greeks for you.

Liberals will be distressed to know that translation also includes a proscription against offering anyone life-ending drugs or an “abortive remedy.” It makes you want to ask for a second translation.

But the ancients certainly have much wisdom to offer anyone feeling flummoxed by a social, cultural and political moment where cancer moonshots, smartphones and free information live side-by-side with climate change denial, creationism and fake news.

At this time of year, like most Americans, I find myself thinking about what the great religions, great thinkers and leading lights of my own profession have to offer on the things in my life buffeted by fear, doubt and confusion. In that spirit, I offer these thoughts for the new leaders of the nation's healthcare system to ponder over the holidays.

“Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has not the health of the daughter of my people been restored?” —Jeremiah 8:22

“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and inhuman.”—Martin Luther King Jr., Chicago, March 26, 1966

“Whoever would care for me, let him care for those who are sick.” —Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) (about 5th century B.C.)

“Whosoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whosoever that saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.”— The Talmud, generally attributed to Rabbi Hillel (1st century B.C.)

“And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.” — Jesus to the Apostles, Luke 10:9

“For every disease there is a cure.”—Prophet Muhammad (7th century A.D.)

“America's health care system is neither healthy, caring, nor a system.” —Walter Cronkite

“The superior doctor prevents sickness; the mediocre doctor attends to impending sickness; the inferior doctor treats actual sickness.” —Chinese proverb

“We try never to forget that medicine is for the people. It is not for the profits. The profits follow, and if we have remembered that, they have never failed to appear. The better we have remembered it, the larger they have been.” —George W. Merck, address to the Medical College of Virginia, Richmond (Dec. 1, 1950)

Edward R. Murrow: “Who owns the patent on this vaccine?” Jonas Salk, inventor of the polio vaccine: “The people I would say. There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?” —“See It Now,” CBS, 1955

“I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures which are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.” —1964 version of the Hippocratic Oath, Johns Hopkins University Press

From everyone at Modern Healthcare, happy holidays and a healthy New Year.