860 Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law THE AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW Kronick divorced from self-interest. (3) It is at least claimed that treatment is harity) dictated by the objective needs of the case and not limited by financial considerations, While the ethical compulsion is surely not as absolute in fact as it is in theory, we can hardly suppose that it has no influence over resource allocation in this area. Charity treatment in one form or another does exist because of this tradition about human rights to ade- quate medical care. 8(4) The physician is relied on as an expert in (lawyerization certifying to the existence of illnesses and injuries for various legal and other purposes. It is socially expected that his concern for the correct conveying of information will, when appropriate, outweigh his desire Needleman Departure from the profit motive is strikingly manifested by the (nonprofits) overwhelming predominance of nonprofit over proprietary hospitals. 20 The hospital per se offers services not too different from those of a hotel, and it is certainly not obvious that the profit motive will not lead to a more efficient supply. The explanation may lie either on the supply ide or on that of demand. The simplest explanation is that public and private subsidies decrease the cost to the patient in nonprofit hospitals. A second possibility is that the association of profit-making with the supply of medical services arouses suspicion and antagonism on the part of patients and referring physicians, so they do prefer nonprofit tions. Either explanation implies a preference on the part of some whether donors or patients, against the profit motive in the bility to pay is strongly ingrained. Such a perceptive observer as Rene dubos has medical ethics, as though this unp ical resources: one has only to have been poor to realize the error. research is a study of the exact nature of the va ved and medical care paid This roie is enhanced in a socialist society, where the state itself is actively concerned th illness in relation to work; see Field [14, Ch 9 About 3 per cent of beds were in proprietary hospitals in 1958, against 30 per cent in Chart 4-2, p. 60] "C.R. Rorem has pointed out to me some further factors in this analysis. (1)Given onomies of scale would dictate a predominance of comnunity-sponsored hospitals,(2)