Masked ball: ethics, laws and financial contradictions in Hungarian health care.
Corruption is a major problem in the societies of the post-communist Central European countries. Corruption in health care has some unique characteristics undermining the efficacy of and respect for Hungarian health care. One of the forms of corruption is tipping. This highly contested phenomenon is present in most of the patient/health professional's interactions in a sophisticated manner, raising serious ethical and legal dilemmas. The present paper analyzes tipping and other corruption-related factors, such as financial conflict of interest between industry and health care and argues that since ethical and legal considerations are often ignored in the country, patient care and clinical research are affected by these controversial issues to a great extent.
Szebik
Imre
I
Department of Bioethics, Institute of Behavioral Sciences, Semmelweis University, Nagyvarad ter 4, H-1089 Budapest, Hungary. Szebimre@xenia.sote.hu
D000029:Abortion, Legal / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D016265:Conflict of Interest; D003657:Decision Making; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000191:economics / Q000941:ethics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D004991:Ethics, Institutional; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D005251:Fees, Medical; D005260:Female; D005382:Financing, Personal / Q000941:ethics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D015285:Hospital-Patient Relations; D006805:Human Experimentation / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D006801:Humans; D006814:Hungary; D007221:Industry / Q000941:ethics*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations / Q000941:ethics*; D011247:Pregnancy; D028743:Professional Misconduct / Q000941:ethics; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000191:economics / Q000941:ethics