A Geyser of Propaganda

 

Not content to let Amazon, Netflix, and Walmart beat it in the virtue-signaling Olympics, the health conglomerate to which my doctor belongs has invited all its victims patients to “join” the BLM movement. In an email sent today to unfortunate Ohioans, the hospital system urges us all to “confront the public health crisis of racism” by browsing articles and books from a linked reading list.

On this list are classics like Ta-Nehisi Coates’s “The Case for Reparations,” the NYT‘s 1619 Project, and Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility. But the best of all is Ibram X. Kendi’s How to be an Antiracist, which recommends the following:

The only remedy to racist discrimination is antiracist discrimination. The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination. . . . To fix the original sin of racism, Americans should pass an anti-racist amendment to the U.S. Constitution that enshrines two guiding anti-racist principles: Racial inequity is evidence of racist policy and the different racial groups are equals. The amendment would make unconstitutional racial inequity over a certain threshold, as well as racist ideas by public officials . . . [The anti-racist amendment] would establish and permanently fund the Department of Anti-racism (DOA) comprised of formally trained experts on racism and no political appointees…. The DOA would be empowered with disciplinary tools to wield over and against policymakers and public officials who do not voluntarily change their racist policy and ideas.

So, there you have it — America in 2020. Hospitals are now hawking openly revolutionary, openly totalitarian political propaganda. Thank God nobody reads these emails.

I never felt the need to own a gun. But now, I do. I’m not going down without a fight.

Published in Culture
This post was promoted to the Main Feed by a Ricochet Editor at the recommendation of Ricochet members. Like this post? Want to comment? Join Ricochet’s community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Join Ricochet for Free.

There are 33 comments.

Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.
  1. lowtech redneck Coolidge
    lowtech redneck
    @lowtech redneck

    Yes, I would rather go down fighting than live like the donkey from Animal Farm.

    • #1
  2. Jules PA Inactive
    Jules PA
    @JulesPA

    Oh Brother. 

    Well I hope the idea of a Constitutional Amendment is DOA.

    pardon the pun. 

    • #2
  3. Hoyacon Member
    Hoyacon
    @Hoyacon

    If I read any of those, my blood pressure would skyrocket.  What do they have to say about that?

    • #3
  4. JosePluma Coolidge
    JosePluma
    @JosePluma

    Kephalithos: I never felt the need to own a gun. But now, I do. I’m not going down without a fight.

    Be sure to get trained (and follow @kevincreighton).

    • #4
  5. 9thDistrictNeighbor Member
    9thDistrictNeighbor
    @9thDistrictNeighbor

    Kephalithos: …establish and permanently fund the Department of Anti-racism (DOA) comprised of formally trained experts on racism….

    Yeah we’re struggling to move past from the last few months of rule by “formally trained experts” Fauci and Birx.  Good luck with that.

     

    • #5
  6. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    So how are you supposed to trust the health care advice you get from Ohio Health if they put politics first? Whatever happened to science? 

    • #6
  7. Saint Augustine Member
    Saint Augustine
    @SaintAugustine

    The Reticulator (View Comment):
    Whatever happened to science? 

    The Left ate it.

    • #7
  8. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    JosePluma (View Comment):

    Kephalithos: I never felt the need to own a gun. But now, I do. I’m not going down without a fight.

    Be sure to get trained (and follow @kevincreighton).

    I wish I lived in a state where I could get my training from the Socialist Rifle Association.  I know someone in our state who belongs to it, but as far as I know they don’t have all the necessary approvals to do training here.

    • #8
  9. Goldgeller Member
    Goldgeller
    @Goldgeller

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    If I read any of those, my blood pressure would skyrocket. What do they have to say about that?

    I mean they’d say that is what white fragility is. But I get you: I feel like my head would explode. 

    The really sad thing is there are good reasons to think through policy responses to inequality, like what types of inequality can be affected by policy, and given that, what responses we can bring to the table.

    Instead we get a lot of disingenuous talk about “never having ‘the conversation’ about race,” with many pretending that the nation has made no progress because many people find it advantageous to be emotionally manipulative about the subject of race. And in the end, I don’t think anyone wins.

    The weirdest thing is that there is always push-back when you try and explain that the majorly broad claims about “structural” or “systemic” racism tend to be, at minimum, very difficult to find with careful empirical work. I get this in my own family and friends even among people who aren’t even woke. And I say,  “no, I’m telling you good news. I’m telling you that we can focus on specific problems and we don’t have to fight a battle on every front.” It’s like people just want things to be bad. 

     

     

    • #9
  10. CACrabtree Coolidge
    CACrabtree
    @CACrabtree

    Wow, in a Red state with a Republican governor, no less.  They’re getting bolder and bolder…

    • #10
  11. Metalheaddoc Member
    Metalheaddoc
    @Metalheaddoc

    Weren’t the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments the anti-racist Amendments?

     

    • #11
  12. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Metalheaddoc (View Comment):

    Weren’t the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments the anti-racist Amendments?

    But they were written by dead white guys, or something.

    • #12
  13. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Metalheaddoc (View Comment):

    Weren’t the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments the anti-racist Amendments?

    But they were written by dead white guys, or something.

    Well, one of our best-known founding fathers was against the living being bound by promises that had been made by the dead. Of course Thomas Jefferson said a lot of things, not all of them consistent with each other.

    • #13
  14. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Metalheaddoc (View Comment):

    Weren’t the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments the anti-racist Amendments?

    But they were written by dead white guys, or something.

    Well, one of our best-known founding fathers was against the living being bound by promises that had been made by the dead. Of course Thomas Jefferson said a lot of things, not all of them consistent with each other.

    I really doubt that Jefferson figured the Republic would only last as long as HE did.

    • #14
  15. Ontheleftcoast Inactive
    Ontheleftcoast
    @Ontheleftcoast

    Does your participation go on your medical record? 

    • #15
  16. lowtech redneck Coolidge
    lowtech redneck
    @lowtech redneck

    Ontheleftcoast (View Comment):

    Does your participation go on your medical record?

    No joke, I think they already require doctors to ask about any guns in the household of patients experiencing depression, its not much of a leap to assume that ‘treatments’ for the endemic pathogen of ‘systemic racism’ will come into play for future ‘consideration’. 

     

    • #16
  17. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    lowtech redneck (View Comment):

    Ontheleftcoast (View Comment):

    Does your participation go on your medical record?

    No joke, I think they already require doctors to ask about any guns in the household of patients experiencing depression, its not much of a leap to assume that ‘treatments’ for the endemic pathogen of ‘systemic racism’ will come into play for future ‘consideration’.

    I remember being asked this question for a routine physical at Johns Hopkins more than twenty years ago.  (Hopkins is a front runner for much of this.)  I asked him why he would ask such a question and he explained that guns could cause serious injury or death.  He then said that if I were to drink alcohol and handle a gun, the risk increases.  He didn’t ask me if I drove a car.

    • #17
  18. Dotorimuk Coolidge
    Dotorimuk
    @Dotorimuk

    I think each employee should have to prove they have read this trash first, and provide book reports.

    • #18
  19. MichaelKennedy Inactive
    MichaelKennedy
    @MichaelKennedy

    Medicine has rapidly changed since Obamacare.  Hospital administrators have always considered doctors to be the enemy, at least partly facetious. We were too opinionated and refused to be told what to do.  I once threatened to testify for a patient if the hospital sued him for the grossly overcharged pacemaker I implanted.  Those days are gone.

    Medical corporations and hospital CEOs enthusiastically supported Obamacare.  First came the requirement for electronic medical records.  Those programs were expensive and written by low bidder programmers.  I finally bought an EMR system for $36,000 in about 1987 after the DRGs and the Harvard/AMA  Resource Based Relative Value Scale.  The origin of RVS was a project of the California Medical Association in the 1950s.  I knew some of the people who devised it.  Health Insurance began the need for some sort of guidebook for fees.  Different specialties sat in committees and argued what the relative value of, say an office visit versus an appendectomy.  No dollar numbers were ever included.  The RVS units were to be applied to a “Conversion Factor” based on the location and expenses of practice, rural vs San Francisco.

    The “Diagnosis Related Groups” were a Medicare imposition, quickly adopted by insurance companies, that paid a fixed amount based on the diagnosis.  No increased payment for complicated cases. Take it or leave it.  Of course hospitals gamed the system as best they could, buying software to maximize revenue.

    The “RBRVS” was a similar scheme for physicians with the intent of devaluing expensive  procedures. I knew internists and cardiologists who bragged that it would result in “Cardiac surgeons driving  Chevrolets while cardiologists drove Mercedes.”  Of course, they were deluded as all fees were pressed down.

    With Obamacare and the original plan to force everyone into gold plated insurance plans, the hospital chains began buying up medical groups.  The doctors were put on salary and intense utilization control was enacted.  I knew GPs whose annual bonus for following “guidelines” was equal to their annual salary.  Who would resist that incentive? I sat in medical group board meetings negotiating the division of group payments.  Many of the physician executives were the most rapacious in the community.  Frequently, they did not actually provide care.  The EMR requirement , enforced by a 3% cut in Medicare payment, was enough to drive most small medical groups or practices into the hospital system.

    My surgical group had set up a highly regarded trauma system in our hospital.  The group ran it for 30 years, long after I retired.  Then a few years ago, the group’s contract was not renewed and a new group from out of the area was given the contract and the ER was instructed to refer ER cases only to the new contract surgeons. Two younger members left the area.

    https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/13160.html

    There is no longer interest in high quality.  To be continued.

    • #19
  20. MichaelKennedy Inactive
    MichaelKennedy
    @MichaelKennedy

    What happened  next was that all physicians were on salary, with the politics to match.  Here is more of the story.

    https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/16910.html

    The turn toward consolidation among insurance companies is not new, and neither is it among doctors, hospitals and other providers. Yet the health bill has accelerated these trends, as all sides race to anticipate and manage political risk and regulatory uncertainty. This dynamic is leading to much larger hospital systems and physician groups, and fewer insurers dominated by a handful of national conglomerates. ObamaCare was sold using the language of choice and competition, but it is actually reducing both.

    The first surge will come among the 1,200 insurers doing business in the U.S., given that a major goal of ObamaCare is to convert these companies into de facto public utilities. Those regulations are now being written—and once they’re up and running some medium-sized carriers will collapse under the new mandates and higher overhead. State insurance commissioners warned the Administration this month that “improper or overly strident application . . . could threaten the solvency of insurers or significantly reduce competition in some insurance markets.” They also implied that bankruptcies are likely.

    That was written ten years ago. It has happened., The University of Arizona Medical Center, known for years as “UMC” and considered the best of medicine in the southwest, was sold to a for profit company called “Banner Health,” because they got over their heads buying a new electronic medical record system. The university sold out to escape the debt.

    EMRs, also called “Electronic Health Records,” to remove the physicians’ role, are notorious for poor security and high work requirement by the physicians.  We now see “burnout” as a common compliant and no young primary care physician I have talked to in the last ten years is happy with his/her practice.  They estimate 25% of their time is spent on data entry.  The vaunted advantage of records accessible to all is a myth.  The EHR of Cedars Sinai, the hospital most used by UCLA faculty for private practice, is not compatible with the UCLA system

    As a consequence, young doctors are not the independent small business people like we were. They are more like corporate sheep, told what to do and knowing no other way.  I taught medical students for 15 years and watched this happen.  They are heavily  regulated and are controlled with incentives that are powerful and they have  no incentive to resist.

    I see older doctors, mostly primary care, dropping all insurance and Medicare and practicing for cash. They tend to be older and have no student debt or kids needing education. Going to cash only cuts over head to 30% and resembles the days when I was a boy and doctors often had one employee, sometimes their wife.

    • #20
  21. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    MichaelKennedy (View Comment):

    Medicine has rapidly changed since Obamacare. Hospital administrators have always considered doctors to be the enemy, at least partly facetious. We were too opinionated and refused to be told what to do. I once threatened to testify for a patient if the hospital sued him for the grossly overcharged pacemaker I implanted. Those days are gone.

    Medical corporations and hospital CEOs enthusiastically supported Obamacare. First came the requirement for electronic medical records. Those programs were expensive and written by low bidder programmers. I finally bought am EMR system for $36,000 in about 1987 after the DRGs and the Harvard/AMA Resource Based Relative Value Scale. The origin al RVS was a project of the California Medical Association in the 1950s. I knew some of the people who devised it. Health Insurance began the need for some sort of guidebook for fees. Different specialties sat in committees and argued what the relative value of, say an office visit versus an appendectomy. No dollar numbers were ever included. The RVS units were to be applied to a “Conversion Factor” based on the location and expenses of practice, rural vs San Francisco.

    The “Diagnosis Related Groups” were a Medicare imposition, quickly adopted by insurance companies, that paid a fixed amount based on the diagnosis. No increased payment for complicated cases. Take it or leave it. Of course hospitals gamed the system as best they could, buying software to maximize revenue.

    The “RBRVS” was a similar scheme for physicians with the intent of devaluing expensive procedures. I knew internists and cardiologists who bragged that it would result in “Cardiac surgeons driving Chevrolets while cardiologists drove Mercedes.” Of course, they were deluded as all fees were pressed down.

    With Obamacare and the original plan to force everyone into gold plated insurance plans, the hospital chains began buying up medical groups. The doctors were put on salary and intense utilization control was enacted. I knew GPs whose annual bonus for following “guidelines” was equal to their annual salary. Who would resist that incentive? I sat in medical group board meetings negotiating the division of group payments. Many of the physician executives were the most rapacious in the community. Frequently, they did not actually provide care. The EMR requirement , enforced by a 3% cut in Medicare payment, was enough to drive most small medical groups or practices into the hospital system.

    My surgical group had set up a highly regarded trauma system in our hospital. The group ran it for 30 years, long after I retired. Then a few years ago, the group’s contract was not renewed and a new group from out of the area was given the contract and the ER was instructed to refer ER cases only to the new contract surgeons. Two younger members left the area.

    https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/13160.html

    There is no longer interest in high quality. To be continued.

    Hear.  Hear!  For both comments.

    • #21
  22. MiMac Thatcher
    MiMac
    @MiMac

    Michael Kennedy-but fortunately EHRs were mandated by that oracle of healthcare-the Obama administration. There used to be a large number of EHR providers-but with numerous mergers there are only a few-and they are GUARANTEED a market. It’s a deal the British East India Company could only have dreamed of!  You make a crappy product-but your customers have to by it! It costs medium sized hospital corporations about $100 million dollars to buy. And the best part is, that the typical hospital losses a significant amount of money the 1st year they adopt the system due to coding and billing problems. I know of medical groups that spend $100,000 per MD for EHR costs per YEAR. Lord only knows the cost of physician hours spent on a computer program that they couldn’t give away on an app store.

    • #22
  23. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    MichaelKennedy (View Comment):

    What happened next was that all physicians were on salary, with the politics to match. Here is more of the story.

    https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/16910.html

    The turn toward consolidation among insurance companies is not new, and neither is it among doctors, hospitals and other providers. Yet the health bill has accelerated these trends, as all sides race to anticipate and manage political risk and regulatory uncertainty. This dynamic is leading to much larger hospital systems and physician groups, and fewer insurers dominated by a handful of national conglomerates. ObamaCare was sold using the language of choice and competition, but it is actually reducing both.

    The first surge will come among the 1,200 insurers doing business in the U.S., given that a major goal of ObamaCare is to convert these companies into de facto public utilities. Those regulations are now being written—and once they’re up and running some medium-sized carriers will collapse under the new mandates and higher overhead. State insurance commissioners warned the Administration this month that “improper or overly strident application . . . could threaten the solvency of insurers or significantly reduce competition in some insurance markets.” They also implied that bankruptcies are likely.

    That was written ten years ago. It has happened., The University of Arizona Medical Center, known for years as “UMC” and considered the best of medicine in the southwest, was sold to a for profit company called “Banner Health,” because they got over their heads buying a new electronic medical record system. The university sold out to escape the debt.

    EMRs, also called “Electronic Health Records,” to remove the physicians’ role, are notorious for poor security and high work requirement by the physicians. We now see “burnout” as a common compliant and no young primary care physician I have talked to in the last ten years is happy with his/her practice. They estimate 25% of their time is spent on data entry. The vaunted advantage of records accessible to all is a myth. The EHR of Cedars Sinai, the hospital most used by UCLA faculty for private practice, is not compatible with the UCLA system

    As a consequence, young doctors are not the independent small business people like we were. They are more like corporate sheep, told what to do and knowing no other way. I taught medical students for 15 years and watched this happen. They are heavily regulated and are controlled with incentives that are powerful and they have no incentive to resist.

    I see older doctors, mostly primary care, dropping all insurance and Medicare and practicing for cash. They tend to be older and have no student debt or kids needing education. Going to cash only cuts over head to 30% and resembles the days when I was a boy and doctors often had one employee, sometimes their wife.

    I realize that income inequality is almost a taboo subject on Ricochet and caring about it could get me ostracized, but I would bet a moderate amount of money that ObamaCare has brought about greater income inequality within the health care sector, and that the gini coefficient is rising within that sector. To make it worse, the wrong people (administrators) are the main beneficiaries of that growing inequality.

    • #23
  24. Ontheleftcoast Inactive
    Ontheleftcoast
    @Ontheleftcoast

    lowtech redneck (View Comment):

    Ontheleftcoast (View Comment):

    Does your participation go on your medical record?

    No joke, I think they already require doctors to ask about any guns in the household of patients experiencing depression, its not much of a leap to assume that ‘treatments’ for the endemic pathogen of ‘systemic racism’ will come into play for future ‘consideration’.

    It’s a logical extension of the trend.

    • #24
  25. Ralphie Inactive
    Ralphie
    @Ralphie

    MichaelKennedy (View Comment):

    What happened next was that all physicians were on salary, with the politics to match. Here is more of the story.

    I was talking with my sister the nurse a few years ago, and said I thought medical care was better about 30 years ago.  It just seemed that we had a family doctor, who knew us, took care of us (we only went when we needed to), and referred us for things he could not do.  About 10 years ago I read a book by Dr. Nortin Hadler “Last Well Patient” who basically said we over doctor.  A few weeks ago, I came across a book by Dr. James Le Fanu “the Rise and Fall of Modern Medicine” who believes the height of medicine’s acheivements were in the 70’s.  He discusses 4 paradoxes: 1. Disillusioned Doctors. Doctors have become more and more unhappy with their work. 2. the Worried Well.  As medical care increased, so did worry about being sick. A lot of basically healthy people take pills. 3. The popularity of Alternative medicine. It used to be quackery, and many of the items pushed were abandoned years ago. Now they’ve come roaring into lives 4. Spiraling Health care costs. 

    Dr. Le Fanu says the promise of the New Genetics (it is more complicated that people predicted) and the Social theory (don’t eat butter, eat butter, don’t drink coffee, drink coffee), has left us with improving hips and insulin that were discovered much earlier.  He also thinks the Social theory has made people worriers.

    I do believe that many go into medical work today because of the money and job security.  The nurses in my family were never looking for work (until very recently, but I think it was short lived).

    And I just remembered the former abortionist, pro life doctor who was basically fired for not participating in LGBT pride events at his hospital. It had nothing to do with his work as a doctor, but his personal beliefs.

    • #25
  26. ape2ag Member
    ape2ag
    @ape2ag

    I have some insight into medical education and training, and I can tell you that the selection and socialization of young doctors is driving this.  And it’s getting worse.  Twenty years ago we all pretty much rolled our eyes at the inclusivity box checking.  Today, it’s absolutely rigid with real consequences on rank lists for med school acceptance and residency matching.  The politically favored rise, and the disfavored are suppressed, with talent and performance secondary considerations.  We aren’t going to get smart woke doctors.  We are going to get a bunch of woke midwits administering medical care in this country.

    • #26
  27. MichaelKennedy Inactive
    MichaelKennedy
    @MichaelKennedy

    MiMac (View Comment):

    Michael Kennedy-but fortunately EHRs were mandated by that oracle of healthcare-the Obama administration. There used to be a large number of EHR providers-but with numerous mergers there are only a few-and they are GUARANTEED a market. It’s a deal the British East India Company could only have dreamed of! You make a crappy product-but your customers have to by it! It costs medium sized hospital corporations about $100 million dollars to buy. And the best part is, that the typical hospital losses a significant amount of money the 1st year they adopt the system due to coding and billing problems. I know of medical groups that spend $100,000 per MD for EHR costs per YEAR. Lord only knows the cost of physician hours spent on a computer program that they couldn’t give away on an app store.

    The system that LA County Hospital bought was incompatible with the USC University Hospital system. Both made teaching difficult because instructors like me did not have a password and could not see the patient records the students were examining.  I wrote an angry letter to the Dean who called me and told me that what I had written could “not possibly be true !”  I asked him when he had last treated a patient.  A year later he was fired for cocaine use.

    I was an enthusiast for EMRs for years and belonged to the national association, ASMI.  Those systems were not what we have now.  The present EHRs are all about rationing.

    • #27
  28. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    Ralphie (View Comment):

    MichaelKennedy (View Comment):

    What happened next was that all physicians were on salary, with the politics to match. Here is more of the story.

    I was talking with my sister the nurse a few years ago, and said I thought medical care was better about 30 years ago. It just seemed that we had a family doctor, who knew us, took care of us (we only went when we needed to), and referred us for things he could not do. About 10 years ago I read a book by Dr. Nortin Hadler “Last Well Patient” who basically said we over doctor. A few weeks ago, I came across a book by Dr. James Le Fanu “the Rise and Fall of Modern Medicine” who believes the height of medicine’s acheivements were in the 70’s. He discusses 4 paradoxes: 1. Disillusioned Doctors. Doctors have become more and more unhappy with their work. 2. the Worried Well. As medical care increased, so did worry about being sick. A lot of basically healthy people take pills. 3. The popularity of Alternative medicine. It used to be quackery, and many of the items pushed were abandoned years ago. Now they’ve come roaring into lives 4. Spiraling Health care costs.

    Dr. Le Fanu says the promise of the New Genetics (it is more complicated that people predicted) and the Social theory (don’t eat butter, eat butter, don’t drink coffee, drink coffee), has left us with improving hips and insulin that were discovered much earlier. He also thinks the Social theory has made people worriers.

    I do believe that many go into medical work today because of the money and job security. The nurses in my family were never looking for work (until very recently, but I think it was short lived).

    And I just remembered the former abortionist, pro life doctor who was basically fired for not participating in LGBT pride events at his hospital. It had nothing to do with his work as a doctor, but his personal beliefs.

    Yes, interestingly, the more things medicine could do, the more patients decided they needed.  The CAT scans were rare, and costs were outrageous, but now is fully covered and used almost as frequently as x-raying.

    And the more that patients got, the less they did for themselves (generally speaking) relying more and more on the industry to keep them healthy take away their symptoms.

    And the more that medicine could do, and the more expensive it became, patients (with the government’s leading) decided that they should pay less; a five-dollar co-pays with inflation are pennies compared to the 20% that my parents paid when I was a child.

    So patients today want symptom alleviation, not cure; and they want it free.

    • #28
  29. MichaelKennedy Inactive
    MichaelKennedy
    @MichaelKennedy

    Flicker (View Comment):

    Ralphie (View Comment):

    MichaelKennedy (View Comment):

    What happened next was that all physicians were on salary, with the politics to match. Here is more of the story.

    I was talking with my sister the nurse a few years ago, and said I thought medical care was better about 30 years ago. It just seemed that we had a family doctor, who knew us, took care of us (we only went when we needed to), and referred us for things he could not do. About 10 years ago I read a book by Dr. Nortin Hadler “Last Well Patient” who basically said we over doctor. A few weeks ago, I came across a book by Dr. James Le Fanu “the Rise and Fall of Modern Medicine” who believes the height of medicine’s acheivements were in the 70’s. He discusses 4 paradoxes: 1. Disillusioned Doctors. Doctors have become more and more unhappy with their work. 2. the Worried Well. As medical care increased, so did worry about being sick. A lot of basically healthy people take pills. 3. The popularity of Alternative medicine. It used to be quackery, and many of the items pushed were abandoned years ago. Now they’ve come roaring into lives 4. Spiraling Health care costs.

    snipped

    I do believe that many go into medical work today because of the money and job security. The nurses in my family were never looking for work (until very recently, but I think it was short lived).

    And I just remembered the former abortionist, pro life doctor who was basically fired for not participating in LGBT pride events at his hospital. It had nothing to do with his work as a doctor, but his personal beliefs.

    Yes, interestingly, the more things medicine could do, the more patients decided they needed. The CAT scans were rare, and costs were outrageous, but now is fully covered and used almost as frequently as x-raying.

    And the more that patients got, the less they did for themselves (generally speaking) relying more and more on the industry to keep them healthy take away their symptoms.

    And the more that medicine could do, and the more expensive it became, patients (with the government’s leading) decided that they should pay less; a five-dollar co-pays with inflation are pennies compared to the 20% that my parents paid when I was a child.

     So patients today want symptom alleviation, not cure; and they want it free.

    If anyone is interested, I have a memoir of what Medicine was like when I began in 1962.   It is a Kindle book on Amazon and seems to be selling.  https://www.amazon.com/War-Stories-50-Years-Medicine-ebook/dp/B00ZQLNHXU/

     

    • #29
  30. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    MichaelKennedy (View Comment):
    If anyone is interested, I have a memoir of what Medicine was like when I began in 1962. It is a Kindle book on Amazon and seems to be selling. https://www.amazon.com/War-Stories-50-Years-Medicine-ebook/dp/B00ZQLNHXU/

    Now in my Kindle queue. I’m looking forward to it, but it’s in position #3 at the moment.

    • #30
Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.