“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.” —Steve Jobs
The Bill of Rights is a foundational document from our past that connects forward to the freedoms we live today. The Bill of Rights, first proposed by James Madison, comprises the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, which were enshrined to protect individual liberties from the government’s historical tendency to overreach.
Government overreach quickly accelerates towards tyranny when unchecked. The famous quote from the British historian Lord Acton —”Absolute power corrupts absolutely” — embodies the slippery slope when those in power accumulate power and forget whom they serve —the people. When power centralizes, it consolidates and empowers itself to the extent of individual power. It is the eternal fight between power in government and the power of the people.
Power does not simply lie in government; it is extended to regulatory bodies, including both central and local bodies, insurance companies, education, and licensing. These entities serve as the government’s long arms, separating the government from the people it serves. Moreover, it separates the people from the power they are entitled to in the rule and power of government. Of course, I am specifically referencing that found in the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution.
Advocacy confusion is the result. The entire healthcare system has pivoted away from patients to serve and protect itself. Medicine has forgotten its first love; it has forgotten whom it serves. In fact, it seems medicine (doctors front and center) serves everybody and everything except the patient. As a result, patients have lost trust in doctors and hospitals. An online survey published by the Journal of the American Medical Association in late 2024 found that only 40% of patients trust doctors and hospitals. I am surprised it was that high. This startling number was down from 72% in 2020. It is the physicians and the medical industry’s fall from the grace of patients.
We all know what happened between 2020 and 2024—a pandemic. The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic still triggers a wide and extreme set of emotions. Medicine became the long arm of government regulation, social and behavioral change, and overreach. Most doctors turned from serving patients to serving government, regulation, and the industry at large.
Many doctors practiced the honorable profession and continued to serve patients at all costs. The costs were severe. We all witnessed firsthand the calamities that ensued for these brave doctors. Friends and colleagues like Dr. Paul Marik, Dr. Pierre Kory, and Dr. Steven Hotze experienced what can only be compared to a modern-day digital burning at the stake. And why? Because they dared to stand on their oath to serve the patient first, without harm.
These, and too many other doctors to mention, stood up to the test of time and history will record their bravery over the course of time. For their hardships, history’s recall may be a small reward, but their positive impact on the present course of change in medicine, specifically the patient-physician relationship, will stand the test of time.
The pandemic stripped patients of their rights. The rights of the patients, the people, were replaced by the dictates of government bureaucrats. Moreover, the pandemic stripped away doctors’ inherent rights to serve patients, instead requiring them to serve the government and bureaucracy, under threat of penalties and licensure elimination. Many doctors today still fight to restore their names, images, and licensure.
The loss of rights during the pandemic is the impetus for a push to restore patient rights first. Second, to ensure patient rights are restored and maintained, physician rights must be restored as well. One cannot exist without the other. Physicians are the patients’ representatives in their health journey. We can assist in journeys of health or of disease. The general decline in the population’s health is due to physicians turning their collective backs on this primary role.
There is no professional relationship that is more intimate than the patient-doctor relationship. To be clear, our primary role is to serve the patient. To restore patients’ confidence in this relationship, we must learn from the government overreach during the pandemic and, as our founding fathers did, permanently enshrine the rights of patients and doctors.
During the early days of the current Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., I was asked to sit on an MAHA task force. It was during this time that I created the following Patient Bill of Rights and Physician Bill of Rights. I have many goals for 2026. One of my many goals is to speak more about the erosion of patient and physician rights to restore the patient-physician relationship and shift the practice of medicine from a disease model to a healing model. Service and trust are key in connecting the past to a better, healthier future.
Patient Bill of Rights
1. Right to Respect and Dignity
Patients are entitled to compassionate, respectful, and dignified care at all times, regardless of background, beliefs, or circumstances.
2. Right to Freedom of Expression and Voice
Patients have the right to express their thoughts, concerns, values, and preferences regarding their health and medical care, and to have those perspectives acknowledged and considered.
3. Right to Informed Consent
Patients are entitled to clear, accurate, and understandable information regarding their diagnosis, prognosis, and available treatment options—including conventional, integrative, natural, holistic, and supportive approaches—along with their potential benefits, risks, and evidence. This information must enable well- informed decision-making without coercion, undue influence, or retaliation, including during urgent or emergent situations when feasible.
4. Right to Privacy and Confidentiality
Patients’ personal health information must be protected in accordance with applicable laws. Patients are entitled to privacy throughout all stages of care with timely access to their medical records.
5. Right to Autonomy and Choice
Patients have the right to accept, decline, or discontinue medical interventions based on informed consent, consistent with applicable laws and clinical responsibilities, without discrimination or punitive consequences.
6. Right to Participate in Care Decisions
Patients are entitled to actively participate in decisions affecting their care, including goal-setting and treatment planning, and to have their values respected in shared decision-making processes with their medical team.
7. Right to Safety and Risk Transparency
Patients are entitled to transparent discussion of risks, benefits, and alternatives related to their care and may decline treatment when fully informed, consistent with medical ethics and legal requirements.
8. Right to Be Heard
Patients have the right to have questions and concerns addressed in a timely, respectful manner, and healthcare professionals have a responsibility to listen attentively throughout the care process.
9. Right to Accountability and Grievance Redress
Patients may raise concerns or grievances regarding their care and are entitled to fair, timely, and transparent review processes through appropriate institutional or regulatory channels.
10. Right to Continuity of Care
Patients are entitled to continuity and coordination of care, including appropriate transitions between providers and care settings.
11. Right to Education and Support
Patients are entitled to access all educational resources and support that enable them to understand and manage their health, with transparency regarding potential conflicts of interest.
References
Perlis, R. H., Ognyanova, K., Uslu, A., Liu, Y., Aral, S., & Lazer, D. (2024). Trust in physicians and hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic in a 50-state survey of US adults. JAMA Network Open, 7(7), e2424984. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.24984