The decline of American healthcare began in 1954 when Congress decided that corporations could deduct healthcare insurance but individuals could not. Over time, the economics of that decision caused the vast majority of insurance to cover groups, not individuals.
If Congress had done the same thing with auto insurance, instead, that’s what this article would be about.
My dad was a doctor with decades of experience as a public health officer, a family practitioner, medical school faculty, and a board-certified clinical and forensic pathologist. He held the medical establishment as described here in contempt for the reasons stated in your post, especially the insurance industry and its collusion with big pharma, the AMA, and government regulators, not always to the benefit of the patients and the patients' families and caregivers.
He taught our family to learn to take care of our own health for everyday issues and to beware new drugs and cosmetic fixes via most OTC drugs. And, to ask hard questions of our health professionals and to seek out doctors who were skeptical of the Medical Machine.
I have been able to find great docs. My criteria for a primary physician? Someone who is curious and keeps learning, who treats patients as partners, who has a sense of humor about themselves, and whose staff is loyal because treats them well.
I'm not saying it's great — tens of thousands die from medical mistakes, for example.
When you are so far off about something so important, you tend to lose your credibility.
Death By Medicine
A definitive review and close reading of medical peer-review journals, and government health statistics shows that American medicine frequently causes more harm than good. The number of people having in-hospital, adverse drug reactions (ADR) to prescribed medicine is 2.2 million.1 Dr. Richard Besser, of the CDC, in 1995, said the number of unnecessary antibiotics prescribed annually for viral infections was 20 million. Dr. Besser, in 2003, now refers to tens of millions of unnecessary antibiotics.2, 2a The number of unnecessary medical and surgical procedures performed annually is 7.5 million.3 The number of people exposed to unnecessary hospitalization annually is 8.9 million.4 The total number of iatrogenic deaths shown in the following table is 783,936. It is evident that the American medical system is the leading cause of death and injury in the United States. The 2001 heart disease annual death rate is 699,697; the annual cancer death rate, 553,251.5
by Gary Null PhD, Carolyn Dean MD ND, Martin Feldman MD, Debora Rasio MD, Dorothy Smith PhD
You forgot to mention Medicare/Medicaid. I'm old enough to remember when my grandparents needed to go to a doctor or hospital back in the 50's. They weren't wealthy and they didn't have insurance, so they paid out of pocket, and it was affordable. Then government came along and "fixed" the problem.
I'd say the American Medical Association behaves more like a doctors' guild, than a union. Guilds are interested in limiting competition and controlling trade practices.
I think people also have wrong expectations. Our medical system is built to dispense RX and surgeries, not prevent or heal diseases. They make it harder to get the things that actually help, like proper tests and therapies and nursing care. And that is what they learn in medical school. Also, people expect to be cured of any and all diseases, but we are just not there yet as far as science or the will to do it. And the climate activists think there are too many people alive anyway, so that belief doesn't lend itself to saving lives.
Something else which happens, particularly in hospitals, is older patients are not shown the same level of care as younger patients. I saw this very clearly when my Dad was briefly hospitalized. Their attitude seems to be, you've lived a long time already, so we'll place our resources on those who have more years to live. It is almost like those socialized countries' same attitudes.
Americans evince a peculiar talent for industrialization, and, unfortunately, don’t stop at those things that should not be industrialized — among them medicine and education. Personal ministry is utterly destroyed by attempting economies of scale.
Probably one of the biggest is the Federal Government now pays for about 50% of all healthcare costs now through Medicare and Medicaid. Since these typically underpay medical costs, those with decent insurance get racked over the coals to make up money lost on those the government pays for. As we know from college costs, anytime the government gets involved, costs go through the roof. After all, if the federal government doesn't pay on time, what recourse do doctors and hospitals have? Some doctors won't deal with Medicare/Medicaid and let the patient file the paperwork. Who can blame them? Government has also made health insurance much more expensive by requiring this, that, and the other, which all drive up costs.
You have to assume it was any good to begin with. After engaging with it for several decades, that is quite a stretch. I plan to no longer engage with the modern stone age medical mafia unless I am on my death bed or I break something.
The less medicines you take, the better off you are. I am amazed how many are on continuous medicine. I understand some is necessary, like when a thyroid is removed, but they seem to be handed out like candy. My 90+ year old Dad doesn't take anything regularly and I don't either. Neither of us got the COVID-19 jabs or even flu shots. My last "family doctor" retired without telling me because I was so rarely there and then only to have him look at something which bothered me, but he said would eventually go away on its own.
DOGE needs to implement a system like Millei’s where you can submit claims/notices regarding rules and regulations impeding competition and artificially inflating prices. First on the list - destroy the national labor relations board, then go after the AMA.
I finished medical school and became a licensed physician in 1980. I began practicing in Siskiyou County in far Northern California in 1988 after serving in the military. At that time, I was still occasionally able to trade medical care for farm fresh eggs, and artisan items, with people who had products but no money. By the early to mid nineties, that became nearly impossible. It’s important to realize that only 15% of physicians belong to the AMA. Most of us hate that organization. We would much rather be able to provide our services directly to patients without the interference of the government or insurance companies
I finished medical school and became a licensed physician in 1980. I began practicing in Siskiyou County in far Northern California in 1988 after serving in the military. At that time, I was still occasionally able to trade medical care for farm fresh eggs, and artisan items, with people who had products but no money. By the early to mid nineties, that became nearly impossible. It’s important to realize that only 15% of physicians belong to the AMA. Most of us hate that organization. We would much rather be able to provide our services directly to patients without the interference of the government or insurance companies.
You actually omit one other system which is similar to the “lodge” system. It’s called Direct Primary Care (DPC). You can google it. It is totally off the insurance radar. You pay a monthly fee for access. Period. No insurance needed. The doctors have a lighter load (800 patients versus 3,000). The rate is age based. I am retired and my rate is $100/month. I get an annual physical included plus interim medical assistance as needed. It’s been around for about 20 years and the data shows that patients have better outcomes than in the insurance based system, and the doctors have a real life because they are not reliant on having a heavy patient load to make money. Less burnout. My daughter runs her husband’s DPC practice here in Raleigh. They have 3 doctors and a waiting list.
You are an excellent economist with whom I virtually always agree. Your article on health care is replete with errors. The AMA is not a union. It does one even represent a majority of doctors and has no control over any dostor - member or not. The AMA has no power to control the number of physicians. There has never been even a hint of withholding services to obtain benefits for doctors. The AMA does not and cannot speak for the 500,000+ physicians who have widely divergent practices, politics, and incentives. I say this as a practicing physician in my 45th year and I have only briefly purchased AMA membership for a brief time as required by my state medical society in order to obtain medical liability insurance. I agree with another commenter who suggested that the cost of medicine swelled only after insurance corrupted the relationship between doctors and patients. I respectfully suggest that you re-research the history of medical practice in the US. The AMA is a very minor association that leans strongly to the left and controls nothing.
The decline of American healthcare began in 1954 when Congress decided that corporations could deduct healthcare insurance but individuals could not. Over time, the economics of that decision caused the vast majority of insurance to cover groups, not individuals.
If Congress had done the same thing with auto insurance, instead, that’s what this article would be about.
My dad was a doctor with decades of experience as a public health officer, a family practitioner, medical school faculty, and a board-certified clinical and forensic pathologist. He held the medical establishment as described here in contempt for the reasons stated in your post, especially the insurance industry and its collusion with big pharma, the AMA, and government regulators, not always to the benefit of the patients and the patients' families and caregivers.
He taught our family to learn to take care of our own health for everyday issues and to beware new drugs and cosmetic fixes via most OTC drugs. And, to ask hard questions of our health professionals and to seek out doctors who were skeptical of the Medical Machine.
I have been able to find great docs. My criteria for a primary physician? Someone who is curious and keeps learning, who treats patients as partners, who has a sense of humor about themselves, and whose staff is loyal because treats them well.
Dear Peter
I'm not saying it's great — tens of thousands die from medical mistakes, for example.
When you are so far off about something so important, you tend to lose your credibility.
Death By Medicine
A definitive review and close reading of medical peer-review journals, and government health statistics shows that American medicine frequently causes more harm than good. The number of people having in-hospital, adverse drug reactions (ADR) to prescribed medicine is 2.2 million.1 Dr. Richard Besser, of the CDC, in 1995, said the number of unnecessary antibiotics prescribed annually for viral infections was 20 million. Dr. Besser, in 2003, now refers to tens of millions of unnecessary antibiotics.2, 2a The number of unnecessary medical and surgical procedures performed annually is 7.5 million.3 The number of people exposed to unnecessary hospitalization annually is 8.9 million.4 The total number of iatrogenic deaths shown in the following table is 783,936. It is evident that the American medical system is the leading cause of death and injury in the United States. The 2001 heart disease annual death rate is 699,697; the annual cancer death rate, 553,251.5
by Gary Null PhD, Carolyn Dean MD ND, Martin Feldman MD, Debora Rasio MD, Dorothy Smith PhD
https://www.headlice.org/news/2005/july/deathbymedicine.htm
Love Is The Answer
Mark R. Elsis
You forgot to mention Medicare/Medicaid. I'm old enough to remember when my grandparents needed to go to a doctor or hospital back in the 50's. They weren't wealthy and they didn't have insurance, so they paid out of pocket, and it was affordable. Then government came along and "fixed" the problem.
Sorry, I missed your comment when I wrote something similar above. Anytime government is involved, the "problem" gets worse.
I'd say the American Medical Association behaves more like a doctors' guild, than a union. Guilds are interested in limiting competition and controlling trade practices.
The AMA is a dictatorship enforced by big pharma.
I think people also have wrong expectations. Our medical system is built to dispense RX and surgeries, not prevent or heal diseases. They make it harder to get the things that actually help, like proper tests and therapies and nursing care. And that is what they learn in medical school. Also, people expect to be cured of any and all diseases, but we are just not there yet as far as science or the will to do it. And the climate activists think there are too many people alive anyway, so that belief doesn't lend itself to saving lives.
Something else which happens, particularly in hospitals, is older patients are not shown the same level of care as younger patients. I saw this very clearly when my Dad was briefly hospitalized. Their attitude seems to be, you've lived a long time already, so we'll place our resources on those who have more years to live. It is almost like those socialized countries' same attitudes.
Absolutely true.
Americans evince a peculiar talent for industrialization, and, unfortunately, don’t stop at those things that should not be industrialized — among them medicine and education. Personal ministry is utterly destroyed by attempting economies of scale.
Don’t blame the AMA, very few doctors still belong. It exists to collect money as they own the coding system and charge everyone to use it
Probably one of the biggest is the Federal Government now pays for about 50% of all healthcare costs now through Medicare and Medicaid. Since these typically underpay medical costs, those with decent insurance get racked over the coals to make up money lost on those the government pays for. As we know from college costs, anytime the government gets involved, costs go through the roof. After all, if the federal government doesn't pay on time, what recourse do doctors and hospitals have? Some doctors won't deal with Medicare/Medicaid and let the patient file the paperwork. Who can blame them? Government has also made health insurance much more expensive by requiring this, that, and the other, which all drive up costs.
You have to assume it was any good to begin with. After engaging with it for several decades, that is quite a stretch. I plan to no longer engage with the modern stone age medical mafia unless I am on my death bed or I break something.
The less medicines you take, the better off you are. I am amazed how many are on continuous medicine. I understand some is necessary, like when a thyroid is removed, but they seem to be handed out like candy. My 90+ year old Dad doesn't take anything regularly and I don't either. Neither of us got the COVID-19 jabs or even flu shots. My last "family doctor" retired without telling me because I was so rarely there and then only to have him look at something which bothered me, but he said would eventually go away on its own.
DOGE needs to implement a system like Millei’s where you can submit claims/notices regarding rules and regulations impeding competition and artificially inflating prices. First on the list - destroy the national labor relations board, then go after the AMA.
I finished medical school and became a licensed physician in 1980. I began practicing in Siskiyou County in far Northern California in 1988 after serving in the military. At that time, I was still occasionally able to trade medical care for farm fresh eggs, and artisan items, with people who had products but no money. By the early to mid nineties, that became nearly impossible. It’s important to realize that only 15% of physicians belong to the AMA. Most of us hate that organization. We would much rather be able to provide our services directly to patients without the interference of the government or insurance companies
I finished medical school and became a licensed physician in 1980. I began practicing in Siskiyou County in far Northern California in 1988 after serving in the military. At that time, I was still occasionally able to trade medical care for farm fresh eggs, and artisan items, with people who had products but no money. By the early to mid nineties, that became nearly impossible. It’s important to realize that only 15% of physicians belong to the AMA. Most of us hate that organization. We would much rather be able to provide our services directly to patients without the interference of the government or insurance companies.
You actually omit one other system which is similar to the “lodge” system. It’s called Direct Primary Care (DPC). You can google it. It is totally off the insurance radar. You pay a monthly fee for access. Period. No insurance needed. The doctors have a lighter load (800 patients versus 3,000). The rate is age based. I am retired and my rate is $100/month. I get an annual physical included plus interim medical assistance as needed. It’s been around for about 20 years and the data shows that patients have better outcomes than in the insurance based system, and the doctors have a real life because they are not reliant on having a heavy patient load to make money. Less burnout. My daughter runs her husband’s DPC practice here in Raleigh. They have 3 doctors and a waiting list.
$$$$$$
You are an excellent economist with whom I virtually always agree. Your article on health care is replete with errors. The AMA is not a union. It does one even represent a majority of doctors and has no control over any dostor - member or not. The AMA has no power to control the number of physicians. There has never been even a hint of withholding services to obtain benefits for doctors. The AMA does not and cannot speak for the 500,000+ physicians who have widely divergent practices, politics, and incentives. I say this as a practicing physician in my 45th year and I have only briefly purchased AMA membership for a brief time as required by my state medical society in order to obtain medical liability insurance. I agree with another commenter who suggested that the cost of medicine swelled only after insurance corrupted the relationship between doctors and patients. I respectfully suggest that you re-research the history of medical practice in the US. The AMA is a very minor association that leans strongly to the left and controls nothing.