I remember when I was a kid, doctors were so interactive and really took time to get to know you and talk to you, learn about what you’re going through and explain things. Now as an adult, it’s been nearly impossible to find a doctor who is willing to take any amount of time to sit down, explain things, show any sort of compassion or empathy at all.
I suffer from acid reflux, and in order to diagnose that, they basically put a tube down your throat, it’s called an endoscopy. You have to be fully sedated with anesthesia and take nearly an entire day off of work because the way the anesthesia affects you, you can’t drive and someone has to drive you. Well for many years now we’ve had this other procedure which is a tube, but they put it through your nose instead. There’s been lots of research papers about the use of it, it’s used in other countries as a procedure regularly. So I asked several gastroenterologists if they offer the procedure and every single one of them said no, and would not provide any additional information or insight as to why you have to be completely sedated and pay thousands upon thousands of dollars for expensive anesthesia. I am simply blown away. It makes no sense. A research tested method that has been written about for about a decade now in actual research studies by board certified medical physicians, and no one offers it. Literally no one, and they won’t even consider it.
I’ve also been through at least several primary care physicians because the ones I have seen are so short and don’t really take time to get to know you at all. They just pop in, ask you a handful of questions and leave, if your test results come back with anything abnormal, they say it’s nothing to worry about, they don’t want to take any extra time to help look into anything or diagnose you… like wtf?
It just seems like doctors these days are out to get you to spend as much money as possible and do the absolute bare minimum for you in return. And now we have direct primary care options where you can circumvent insurance entirely, pay your doctor thousands upon thousands of dollars a year for the same level of care that we had in the '90s. But now you have to pay out of pocket for that in addition to your insurance. Wtfffff
The medical industry and the insurance industry are locked in a battle for money, and you don’t have a lot of say in it. I used to run an ambulance service. Let’s discuss.
If I took you to the hospital, and you were on medicare, there was a fixed rate to pick you up and a per mile rate. I got paid part by the government and part by the patient, who I was legally required to bill. If I failed to adequately bill the patient (10% or so), if I lied on the parts and mileage, silver bracelets and court time. We loved billing care/caid, because it was a fixed price, and we knew the payer of 90% paid regularly.
If you have private ambulance transport, you have no idea what you’ll get. The patient can have a $13,000 deductible, a 50% copay, and. $20,000 per-event cap. There’s no rule what a reasonable bill can be. The insurance company is trying to rig the game so the patient pays most of the bill while paying that sweet monthly premium at the same time. The ambulance is trying to be reimbursed for the time and materials. The red states opened the door for the patients to again be uninsured and pay you $0 for everything. So bills have to be high, to ensure some money comes in from insurance, to insure things can keep running. I would have loved to have a country of all care/caid and it be illegal to live there otherwise. They’d be the best cared for poor and old people in the world, getting quality care backed by the “only if you’re poor or old” US single-payer system.
But we have what we have, and it’s been well sold to enough clueless people that it’s here to stay.
It shows how far right both parties have moved, that Richard Nixon championed the idea of a funded EPA and single payer health (the later until Kaiser got his ear).