Is the issue 'should a doctor have to violate her beliefs?' or is it 'should a medical provider/insurance company have to provide the care the provider has agreed to?'

If the treatments were supposed to be covered, and the patient had to go to an outside doctor because the in-network doctor wouldn't do the treatment, then the insurance company or the doctor who refused to treat needs to pay the bill.

Taking a moral stance (like refusing to inseminate a homosexual patient on moral grounds) is fine-but the doctor needs to be willing to pay the price of that moral stance.  

If the doctor's contracted with a provider to provide certain treatments, then she needs to fulfill her contract.  That's a moral responsibility as well.

Kari

Kari,

[!--QuoteBegin--][/span][table border=\"0\" align=\"center\" width=\"95%\" cellpadding=\"3\" cellspacing=\"1\"][tr][td]Quote [/td][/tr][tr][td id=\"QUOTE\"][!--QuoteEBegin--]If a patient has purchased insurance to cover specified treatments, then that patient has the right to what she's purchased. [/quote]

The insurance contracts are not guarentees of a physician providing the service if someone demands it--they are guarentees that the service--when provided-- will not be charged out at over the cost contracted between the physician and your insurance company, who is guarenteeing fast payment to the physician for the services rendered if the costs are held to the contracted amounts which can be quite a bit less than what that physician may charge otherwise.  A physician is a business person like anyone else who is in business.  He is obligated under his contract with an insurance provider to provide the proceedures he normally provides at the cost that the insurance provider contracts with him, in exchange for the referral he gets from the insurance provider.  However, he has the right to refuse to provide elective services to a given patient if he so desires, even though the insurance company may provide payment for the services, and he may, on occassions, provide the service under certain conditions.  All he/she really has to do is provide a referral when he/she is not willing to provide a particular service for a particular patient.  That is his/her right as a business person and owner of his/her own business, and his/her personal feelings about providing the service.  He/she may not feel qualified to provide the service in a manner that the the patient needs because of personal, moral, lack of proper facilities, or lack of training issues.  A good example of this is an OB/GYN who refusses to do abortions, even though it may be paid for by the insurance company.  My wife's OB/GYN has a sign posted in his office that says "We do not provide abotions, so don't ask".  Up front denial of service even though abortion is covered by some insurance companies.  Some small hospitals and physicians in my rural area have signs that say "we do not provide maternity services", even though most better insurance policies have that provission.  Up front denial of services, even though it is in the insurance provider's coverage.

As a patient, I sure wouldn't want to force a physician to treat me who is going to be impaired by personal feelings or lack of training that might hamper proper treatment!  Also, as a patient who pays the insurance premium, I have the responsibility of telling the physician that I wish to use an approved provider under my insurance policy for the service and that he/she needs to make the referral to that particular physician.

You cannot force doctors to perform anything they morally object to. In fact, you can't force people to become doctors at all which is whats coming next if these stupid law suits don't stop.

There are many states with the problem of having plenty of insurance companies saying they will cover something, yet no doctors on the plan to perform procedures.