Conclusion

A theory of handling the money-medicine tension is presented. The main argument of the book is demonstrated by making explicit certain underlying presuppositions about money, work, and meaning. The analytical framework of money attitudes, understood as constellations of different hierarchies of values, is established. Subsequently, the theory’s elements that pertain to the general money culture of medicine are discussed. Furthermore, four-dimensional variants of contexts and money attitudes are presented, with a specific focus on how doctors act in handling the tension between money and medicine. The first of these variations is handling the money-medicine tension by adopting the money-means attitude in the private context. The others include the money-purpose attitude in the private context, the money-means attitude in the public context, and the money-purpose attitude in the public context—each with its own distinct strategies for treating the relationship between money and medicine.