Whatever happened to the grumpy old sawbones who fussed at us about our living habits, made house calls, made judgment calls without the help of expensive testing, and gave medical advice without being asked for it? You could actually reach him at home without getting cut off by an answering service, and he returned your calls. Have you had that happen lately? Not likely. We don't have doctors like that these days. Doctors now are better businessmen than they were back when people my age were growing up, and even then, the doctor was likely the richest man in town. Are doctors better trained now? Do they do a better job of taking care of people's medical needs? Nope. They're a lot more independent, and they're most certainly a lot more expensive. In short, health care in America has been hijacked by commercial interests, and not all of that is the doctor's fault. He must work within a system that is run by people who do not have your best interests at heart - corporate owned and run hospitals, insurance companies, drug companies, and the sellers of medical supplies and equipment.
An elderly man here in my home town had a problem with a painful shoulder and was told he needed surgery. He also had a breathing disorder caused by a lung condition, and the doctor he'd been seeing for that told him to avoid the surgery, that he might not survive it. But the doctor doing the surgery on the shoulder assured him that he'd be fine, that there was nothing to worry about. He had the surgery and died two days later, of respiratory distress. He trusted the wrong doctor, and now he's dead. This is not an isolated case. It happens all the time in this country.
Our health care system is one that pumps the patient for every dollar they can get out of them. They say that all the tests are necessary because they need the information, that it saves lives. I think they're probably right about that, but lots of tests are unnecessary. People who work in the system these days have all these wonderful high tech things to use, and they are very expensive, and they need to do things to recover the money. It's like going to a car mechanic theses days. You get the bill, and it says $50 for parts, another $250 for labor, and another $200 for diagnostics. Right. Cars are too high tech these days for a mechanic to know what's wrong without diagnostics. But people are pretty much the same as they were fifty years ago, or a hundred years ago. Today's doctors are dependent on high tech diagnostics, can't do the things a doctor of fifty years ago could do. Doesn't know enough, that's my take on it. What he knows about is fancy equipment, etc. He knows less about people, a lot less, and that makes him less trustworthy. So you might as well accept the high tech diagnostics because they're more dependable than the man himself. More trust in high tech machines and medicines and stuff, and less trust in the doctor. Is that what we're facing these days? Well, in some cases, that's exactly what's happening.
And the moral is: Don't be easily talked into anything. Seek second opinions if you have doubts, any doubt at all. There's lots of doctors out there, and finding a good one isn't all that hard. ALWAYS BE SUSPICIOUS of anything medical practitioners tell you . . . unless you have found that right doctor.
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