We have a problem with doctors in the United States. Don't think so? Read the rest of my blog.
First off, we need to understand the mindset of most of our doctors today. It is very expensive to go thru medical school and as a result, a disproportionate percentage of our doctors come from richer families. They would make you think that our doctors are cut from some high IQ cloth, but they are not. If you look at our colleges and universities that have the highest tuition and the richest parents of students, you will also find that they are the most "liberal". That is not bad on the face of it, but it has other implications. There is some thing deep in the thinking of most liberals and that is "perfection". They are like spoiled babies, which many are, who are not satisfied by common things. They do not look forward to a camp out in the woods and sleeping on the ground. They want to visit Europe or some other expensive place. They look for the "perfect" dress rather than one they can afford like the poorer person. I blogged on Obamacare and how liberals think that everyone has a "right" to state of the art health care". This is like "perfect" health care. If most of the people want President Trump to enforce our immigration laws and deport people who are here illegally, liberals only want the "really" bad ones deported. Further, they don't want the government to make a single mistake and deport a "good" person. They would rather not deport anyone if it meant that a one "good" person would be deported in the process. Are you starting get an idea of the mindset of a liberal? Do-Gooders fit into the same class and that is where many of our doctors come in. They are part of a "double" selection process where the "rich" and "Do-Gooder" come together.
Now, how does this affect our medical system. Let's start with the Hippocratic Oath. It says that it is better to do nothing rather than take a chance of doing something bad for the patient. Does this sound more like a covering the doctor's ass first rather than taking care of the patient? I know that doctors are afraid of Lawyers and thus they carry big and expensive malpractice insurance policies. By practicing defensive medicine, it reduces the chances of having a run in with a lawyer and that is exactly what they do. Are you starting to see why they hide behind their "oath"?
Have you noticed how doctors today run all kinds of expensive tests and yet our life expectancy here in the United States is going "down"? Do any of you remember the days when doctors made house calls? They came with their little black bag and you paid them in cash before they left. I was just talking to an older local doctor about when he started practicing medicine and he said that he charged $30 for a house call back then. I have a vet for my horses who makes house calls and can do ultra sounds to determine the sex of a foal for about $100. In India, people can do the same thing for less than $10 at their local drug store. What does it cost here? Once I had the vet out to take a blood sample so that I could test to see if my horse carried a gene for a serious genetic problem. The total cost including the testing was about $100. If you were to have this done on one of your children, it would have cost over $1,000. What is going on here?
I just went to a doctor at a major medical clinic and told her that I had all the clinical symptoms of Lymes disease, but on the basis of a negative Lymes disease blood test, she refused to give me a prescription for the medicine to cure my Lymes disease. How is that? Everyone who lives in an area where Lymes disease is common knows that the blood test for Lymes disease is very unreliable. Listening to me explain my clinical symptoms took no more than 5 minutes while her blood and urine test took a day and half and cost me 20 times as much! Do we have a problem with doctors in the United States, or what?
Here is the decision alternative situation:
(1) No Lymes-------------------No Pills
(2) No Lymes-------------------Yes Pills
(3) Yes Lymes------------------No Pills
(4) Yes Lymes------------------Yes Pills
Look at the table. Which is the "perfect" answer? Can't figure it out? It is (4) and (1), but what my doctor did was to take answer (3)! Why did she do this? Because she was afraid of (2) than she was (3). Now, think about the impact of (2) and (3)? Under alternative (3) I could die or have permanent health damage. Under (2) I could develop a strain of a disease in my body that could not be cured easily with standard medicine. Realize that I am 77 years old and am going to die of something in a few more years ( I hope not). The only explanation is that the doctor is more concerned about being sued than about my health. In the case of being sued, she has insurance. What do I have? Nothing. Does this example start to show you the problem that we have with our medical system?
PS--I found another doctor who only looked at the clinical symptoms for Lymes and got the correct medicine in less than one hour, What a system!
PS--Here is another key point about doctors. 90% of their knowledge is "empirical", which means it is based of the memorization of examples, Most science is based on "analytical" knowledge that is based on principles that apply universally. You can't solve "new" problems with "empirical" knowledge, but you can with "analytical" knowledge. In college you learn "analytical" knowledge by experimenting, where as, you learn "empirical" knowledge by memorization. This is why kids who can memorize for a big test are the ones who get into medical schools and the ones good in math and physics are the ones who get into engineering schools. With "empirical" knowledge, you can see backwards but not forward, where as "analytical" knowledge allows one to see "both" ways'!!
First off, we need to understand the mindset of most of our doctors today. It is very expensive to go thru medical school and as a result, a disproportionate percentage of our doctors come from richer families. They would make you think that our doctors are cut from some high IQ cloth, but they are not. If you look at our colleges and universities that have the highest tuition and the richest parents of students, you will also find that they are the most "liberal". That is not bad on the face of it, but it has other implications. There is some thing deep in the thinking of most liberals and that is "perfection". They are like spoiled babies, which many are, who are not satisfied by common things. They do not look forward to a camp out in the woods and sleeping on the ground. They want to visit Europe or some other expensive place. They look for the "perfect" dress rather than one they can afford like the poorer person. I blogged on Obamacare and how liberals think that everyone has a "right" to state of the art health care". This is like "perfect" health care. If most of the people want President Trump to enforce our immigration laws and deport people who are here illegally, liberals only want the "really" bad ones deported. Further, they don't want the government to make a single mistake and deport a "good" person. They would rather not deport anyone if it meant that a one "good" person would be deported in the process. Are you starting get an idea of the mindset of a liberal? Do-Gooders fit into the same class and that is where many of our doctors come in. They are part of a "double" selection process where the "rich" and "Do-Gooder" come together.
Now, how does this affect our medical system. Let's start with the Hippocratic Oath. It says that it is better to do nothing rather than take a chance of doing something bad for the patient. Does this sound more like a covering the doctor's ass first rather than taking care of the patient? I know that doctors are afraid of Lawyers and thus they carry big and expensive malpractice insurance policies. By practicing defensive medicine, it reduces the chances of having a run in with a lawyer and that is exactly what they do. Are you starting to see why they hide behind their "oath"?
Have you noticed how doctors today run all kinds of expensive tests and yet our life expectancy here in the United States is going "down"? Do any of you remember the days when doctors made house calls? They came with their little black bag and you paid them in cash before they left. I was just talking to an older local doctor about when he started practicing medicine and he said that he charged $30 for a house call back then. I have a vet for my horses who makes house calls and can do ultra sounds to determine the sex of a foal for about $100. In India, people can do the same thing for less than $10 at their local drug store. What does it cost here? Once I had the vet out to take a blood sample so that I could test to see if my horse carried a gene for a serious genetic problem. The total cost including the testing was about $100. If you were to have this done on one of your children, it would have cost over $1,000. What is going on here?
I just went to a doctor at a major medical clinic and told her that I had all the clinical symptoms of Lymes disease, but on the basis of a negative Lymes disease blood test, she refused to give me a prescription for the medicine to cure my Lymes disease. How is that? Everyone who lives in an area where Lymes disease is common knows that the blood test for Lymes disease is very unreliable. Listening to me explain my clinical symptoms took no more than 5 minutes while her blood and urine test took a day and half and cost me 20 times as much! Do we have a problem with doctors in the United States, or what?
Here is the decision alternative situation:
(1) No Lymes-------------------No Pills
(2) No Lymes-------------------Yes Pills
(3) Yes Lymes------------------No Pills
(4) Yes Lymes------------------Yes Pills
Look at the table. Which is the "perfect" answer? Can't figure it out? It is (4) and (1), but what my doctor did was to take answer (3)! Why did she do this? Because she was afraid of (2) than she was (3). Now, think about the impact of (2) and (3)? Under alternative (3) I could die or have permanent health damage. Under (2) I could develop a strain of a disease in my body that could not be cured easily with standard medicine. Realize that I am 77 years old and am going to die of something in a few more years ( I hope not). The only explanation is that the doctor is more concerned about being sued than about my health. In the case of being sued, she has insurance. What do I have? Nothing. Does this example start to show you the problem that we have with our medical system?
PS--I found another doctor who only looked at the clinical symptoms for Lymes and got the correct medicine in less than one hour, What a system!
PS--Here is another key point about doctors. 90% of their knowledge is "empirical", which means it is based of the memorization of examples, Most science is based on "analytical" knowledge that is based on principles that apply universally. You can't solve "new" problems with "empirical" knowledge, but you can with "analytical" knowledge. In college you learn "analytical" knowledge by experimenting, where as, you learn "empirical" knowledge by memorization. This is why kids who can memorize for a big test are the ones who get into medical schools and the ones good in math and physics are the ones who get into engineering schools. With "empirical" knowledge, you can see backwards but not forward, where as "analytical" knowledge allows one to see "both" ways'!!
