Who Is Driving Health Care?

Over the last century, health care in the U.S. has evolved from a service industry into what people think is an inalienable right. During the reshaping of the industry, hospitals and doctors have kept their perspective of service, while individuals in society exercise their “right” to impose their will on the profession. Many people even look at health care professionals as civil servants, rather than the professionals they are. These attitudes have helped create the health care issues we now face.

Health Care

Health Care | Image Source: PoYang_博仰

Some of the most insulting titles of recent books or articles include phrases like “cures your doctor doesn’t want you to know;” as if doctors and hospitals gather at secret conventions to hide cures from their patients. This helps to further erode the trust that patients have for their doctors. In addition, many articles portray the health care industry as a giant money machine that creates drugs and treatments to further fill its coffers with the hard-earned money of citizens. Doctors, hospitals, and medical suppliers are in it “for the money.” Because of this mind-set, more people are losing confidence in the health care system. Furthermore, this erroneous belief has led many to try to take advantage of the system before it takes advantage of them. Hence, people want more quality service or faultless medical advice for less.

The demonizing of health care has made it easy for people to be in favor of the creation of more government regulations or agencies that will control and oversee the medical industry. They think that maybe the government could put a stop to these experts who withhold cancer cures so that they can continue to rake in more money from costly treatments. Right…

So, why is current health care so heavy into expensive treatments, surgeries, and drugs when there are so many cures available? Maybe we should ask the driver.

Patients have been in the driver’s seat of health care for decades. The problems that they complain about are mostly of their own doing. Doctor’s actually do know the cures to many maladies. It’s just that most people have stopped listening. Let’s take a look at some of the advice medical experts have always given the public.

The list of helpful reminders seems endless – yet people ignore it. So, rather than throw their hands up in defeat, health care professionals spend their time and money on creating alternatives for the cures people ignore.

Health care has been so successful in curing and treating society’s demand to live dangerously, that delusional gurus believe there must be a magic pill for cancer and heart disease that researchers are hiding. The expectations and demands are a hospital administrator’s worst nightmare–more for less.

It isn’t feasible to cover and document all the points of this issue in this short article. However, until more people are willing to relinquish the driver’s seat and allow hospitals, doctors, nurses, researchers, and medical supply distributors to drive their own industry and be “the doctor” or the person in charge, then this car will continue to race out of control.

What’s your opinion on the health care issues, and what steps should we be taking to remedy them? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Claire Hunt is a freelance blogger. She writes about common medical concerns, illnesses, and other related issues. She also provides material for medical supply companies, like CIA Medical. This company is a well-respected supplier of excellent medical supplies.

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