We Are Losing a Pretty Good Profession
Medical CareMedical insurance now comes has so many wrinkles that the insurers themselves don’t understand it. They don’t have to. While we as a customer wade through a blizzard of options, copayments, deductibles, providers covered, conditions covered, what diseases you’re liable to get or medications you’re likely to need, the insurer has already set the table and stacked the deck.
We are in fact doing much less research and making much less progress than we were 50 years ago. The reason is that we have allowed medical care and research to devolve into a system of interlocking monopolies that can can make any given pill or service cost whatever they say it costs.
We’ve been able to cure most pediatric patients with leukemia for over 50 years. Yes we know more and have improved the treatment regimes but the most significant difference between then and now is the high probability that copayments and other out of pocket costs will bankrupt the family. There is an inherent conflict between mission and money.
Americans don’t utilize more care than elsewhere. The reason our medical care costs so much more than elsewhere and so much more than it used to is because the cost of a hospital day or a given pill is much more than elsewhere and much more than the same pill or hospital day used to be.
Doing no harm, not providing unnecessary care, harnessing science and our profession to do the greatest good for the greatest number of people are high and difficult goals but they’re the ones we’ve chosen and the ones we’ll be judged by.
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