ATS what is your opinion on the healthcare system in America? Be painfully honest.

Hello all! I am a second year medical student and I was just wondering what everyone's point of view on the healthcare system is here in America? I would tell you all that I disagree with these pharmaceutical companies making drugs unaffordable to the point where people end up in a situation where they have to pay to live. I am really looking forward to everyone's responses. I hope all is well!

reply to post by Unvarnished


Be sure before going to hospital that you're dead, it will save paperwork and personal debt

Way too much overprescribing. Way too much emphasis on money over people (to be expected). I try to avoid doctors now and I think I would prefer to die at home before I will go to a doctor. They are very quick to prescribe some expensive treatment before they will consider looking into removing the cause. Just my experience, but it varies.

A whole bunch of doctors are getting rich treating other peoples ills. Hippocrates would vomit at the sight of our "health care system".

reply to post by Unvarnished


Many want change in healthcare,but MANY want a repeal on the current POTUS version of it...................

WASHINGTON – A plurality of Americans want to repeal President Obama’s health care overhaul law, according to a new Gallup poll released today. The survey found that 47 percent of respondents are in favor of eliminating the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, while 42 percent want it to remain intact. The results were largely divided along partisan lines, with 80 percent of Republicans supporting a repeal and 64 percent of Democrats favoring the reform’s preservation. Independents lean toward repeal, 48 percent to 43 percent.

Gallup poll finds 47 percent of Americans want to repeal health care law

reply to post by jcord


I definitely agree, overprescribing and even too much test ordering to see what the patient has. I just want to be an ethical physician and treat everyone efficiently without imposing a financial burden on them. I personally think healthcare should be free for all, but you know how it is here in a capitalist nation who likes to make money off of everyone's woes.

reply to post by redbarron626


Not only would he vomit but he would be rolling in his grave right now. Agreed my friend.

Just like everything else in the U.S., it's been high-jacked by corporations and commodified to a dysfunctional degree.

In the UK we have a little thing called National Health Service , bet everyone living on or below the poverty line would kill for a stateside NHS now ........ but like your system , we have the same problems with big drug manufacturers who buddy up to whoever is in government , dish the money and get the contracts.

en.wikipedia.org...(England)

reply to post by Unvarnished

I have to relate this painfully, but honestly. Both my parents are advanced in their years and each has been diagnosed with heart arythmia. Earlier this year they both received RF heart ablations for their conditions and it seems to have cured their problems. Since they are both retired with incomes from pensions and whatnot, they are insured for the full amount of their treatments. As near as I can tell all the tests, hospital stays, drugs and procedures added up to near a quarter million dollars. I drove each of them and sat thru endless visits and helped to convalesce them back to their geriatric selves. Now they will each live another decade until something else comes up which will be fully covered by the finest hospitals that money can buy. All their savings, belongings and lifestyles are completely intact throughout.

I think that a lot of elderly people are receiving this same kind of treatment throughout this country today and the enormous costs of the medical insurance pay outs have made it that much harder for many others to afford care and even insurance. The old get older and older, propped up by the system and young struggling people can't afford to pay for even the simplest medical treatment, let alone the insurance rates offered to them. If you have a family with children and a median to lower income, forget it. That money and those hospital beds are filled with old people who are first in line.

Originally posted by Unvarnished
I would tell you all that I disagree with these pharmaceutical companies making drugs unaffordable

To me, thats not the problem.
Any company is allowed to sell their product at whatever price they wish. Ferrari could choose to say that their next car will cost three million dollars... and so forth.
The problem is lack of competition. If you cant afford a Ferrari, you can choose to buy a Toyota. But with pharmaceuticals, there is really no legal way of getting the cheaper version from another company.

Doctors used to be trained to heal people by medical professionals in a school that cared for the patients. Now they're trained what to prescribe for symptoms, by doctors that earn a living from insurance companies in a school bought off by big phama.

Family practitioners used to know where you lived so they could come by at your request. Now your sick ass has to wait in a room full of sick people so they can ask how many guns are in your house.

They prescribe treatments for cancer that they, themselves would never agree to for themselves or their own families.

That pretty much sums it up.

The fact that MANY fore go necessary treatments/surgeries to avoid going bankrupt is an awful reflection on the system.

I took my daughter for her yearly well check..She was not sick, she has absolutely no health problems..just a yearly check for growth, ht.wt. etc. This cost almost 400 bucks. WHY??? Why should this cost 400 dollars. Im glad I don't have to pay out of pocket because she would certainly NOT be going to the doctor ever.

Imagine if she were sick..how much would that cost?

reply to post by Unvarnished


being in my 60s, i have had too many bad experiences to post them all.
i'm lucky i have no prescriptions.

the waste is unbeleivable, we must have hundreds of millions $ worth of hospital buildings within 10 miles of me, but if i catch a flue, i get a free ride 20 miles away to the nearest doctor that see you without a 2 month appointment.
or go to the emergency and spend a fortune.

3 hospitals 6 miles from each other, with a dozen medical centers costing millions that specialize.
you go to the wrong hospital, you take an ambulance to the other, not a 5$ taxi, it's the rules.

we have over two dozen non profit dealing with everything from mental, drug, rehab, or other problems for a city of 40,000.
many in million dollar facilities, one way or the other the bill goes to the government or insurances.

yet if you catch the flu, it's a 20 mile free ride to see a doctor.

the system does not impress me that is for sure.

I commend you for caring about people. You should possibly check into holistic medicine.

My story is kinda epic, but it has a happy ending. Long story short, I figured out (by being forced with the idea of death) that western medicine no longer has the welfare of people in mind, but only the welfare of their collective wallets.

ANYTHING you put into your system will effect you. To think otherwise seems so silly to me now.

Learn about illnesses and diseases and then do (separate from class) research on how those things are being CURED every day with food, herbs and exercise. I know it may sound crazy... but that's what they want you to think.

If you're one of the lucky who was dealt a good hand (basic good health, no real family illness/disease) then it will be even more difficult to convince you that what you intake and how you treat your body is most important.

I mean, we all know someone who can eat two value meals from a fast food place for dinner followed by an entire package of oreos and a gallon of milk for dessert with no discernible side effects. I just imagine how awesome someone like that would feel if they actually cared for themselves. I bet like a superhero!

Anywho, I feel great now, but it certainly wasn't do to western medicine. I cringe at the thought. I will NEVER again go to a doctor unless something is horribly broken... at which time, I'd probably get a second opinion first.

I used to give lots and lots of money to BigPharma. At one time I was on 12 different meds! I haven't taken so much as an OTC pain reliever in about 8 years. I have fibromyalgia as well as a handful of other pain and autoimmune disease disorders. No doctors for me now. And I feel great! I don't even get the common cold/flu anymore. After spending much time in the hospital and even in a bubble as a child, I'd say I'm doing pretty well. :-)

I wish doctors' goal were to teach people how to listen and interpret their bodies.

Keep on truckin', man. Learn what you can, but don't fall for anything. Good Luck!

Namaste

I honestly think everyone has a terrible attitude. Huge medical advances have been made in recent history, and all anyone can talk about is how much they cost. Newsflash people... treating cancer is HARD. Treating diabetes is HARD. Treating AIDS is HARD. Becoming a doctor is HARD. Because these things are hard to do they tend to be quite expensive. There is no "magic wand" that anyone can wave to fix suffering. It is generally no one else's fault if you are sick. You should be glad that it is even POSSIBLE that you can pay to stay alive. A hundred years ago, you'd simply die and there'd be no hope for you whatsoever. I'm tired of the entitlement mentality... Did YOU spend endless years trying to find a drug to cure AIDS? Did YOU put aside money so you could help yourself or relatives if they fell ill? Yes I'll agree drug companies are getting greedy, but you only have access to treatment because of them anyway. Humans weren't designed to last forever. If you want to be endlessly repaired and reconstituted do something for society that makes them want to help you.

As for me, I'll go back to the dirt I came from.

Originally posted by sonnny1
reply to post by Unvarnished

 

Many want change in healthcare,but MANY want a repeal on the current POTUS version of it...................

WASHINGTON – A plurality of Americans want to repeal President Obama’s health care overhaul law, according to a new Gallup poll released today. The survey found that 47 percent of respondents are in favor of eliminating the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, while 42 percent want it to remain intact. The results were largely divided along partisan lines, with 80 percent of Republicans supporting a repeal and 64 percent of Democrats favoring the reform’s preservation. Independents lean toward repeal, 48 percent to 43 percent.

Gallup poll finds 47 percent of Americans want to repeal health care law

Hardly a definite plurality considering the +/-"4 percentage points" margin of error. Factoring that in, the spread could be anywhere from 51-38 in favor of repeal to 46-43 in favor of keeping in place. Then when you factor in the 11% that had no opinion at the time of polling and consider that the majority of those people would form an opinion come voting time, it's just too close to call. (Gallup Poll on Keeping or Repealing the Nation's Healthcare Law)

reply to post by Neopan100


I agree, it should not cost 400 dollars, hence, the physical check up they teach us here in medical school can be performed by any individual at home. It pains me that this is what is going on in the nation.

I believe we're being charged way too much money for something, good health, that should be free to all. I've had a hernia for 2 years now because I can't afford the surgery and I'd rather die than be a slave to the debt that I'd be stuck with. It doesn't seem fair to have something you're born with put you thousands of dollars into debt.