ABSTRACT
In health care, the Yuppie ethic may have a catastrophic effect on American hospitals and those they serve. Yuppie ethics is the study of what happens to a limited resource when a powerful subgroup of the population seeking that resource wants a disproportionate share of it. Hospitals welcomed the election of Ronald Reagan, who promised an end to regulatory cost containment. In 1983, the Reagan administration and Congress implemented, with lightning speed, the diagnosis related group (DRG) method of prospective, payment to hospitals under Medicare. The First Corollary of Yuppie Ethics is that the level of deservingness of the poor varies in direct proportion to the amount of resources available. The Second Corollary is that if disenfranchising the poor will not free up enough resources to dissipate the fear of shortages, then some other group must also become less deserving.
