Doctors

Since the move from New Orleans I have to find doctors for Jane and myself here in Portland. I rarely see doctors but I have to have one in case you need some medication, as in an antibiotic for a sore throat. I do need a dentist and think everyone should see his or her dentist at least twice a year. I have all my teeth and plan on keeping them to the end. Jane is a female and females see doctors far more than do males (we men are too macho to admit we are sick until we are too sick to stand it anymore).

Having written the above I have a few observations on doctors that practice in the U.S. The first one is that they have way too many patients to see. I don't know how any doctor can see so many and truly know the patient well enough to know all their medical problems. before those awful HMO insurance groups forced doctors into becoming "medical groups" a patient knew his or her doctor personally. They were seen for 30 minutes a visit instead of the 5 that is common now. It's a shame doctors sold out to the HMO insurance system because they now make much less money than previously and don't even know their patients( who often are switched from one doctor to another by their insurance company).


Before HMO's primary care doctors made house calls, charged a small basic office visit fee, and didn't over prescribe medications because they weren't afraid of being sued for "negligence" and didn't have an obligation to push the drugs the drug companies want then to prescribe. Pre HMO medical procedures was simpler, far less costly and more competently performed.


Today there is a specialist for every injury or illness. This is because a specialist earns far more money than the old fashioned primary care doctor does. If you need a heart surgeon you can find one easily now, because the field is teeming with them. Heart surgeons make tons of money. This influences medical students to study that field. I suspect that today there are many more heart doctors than primary care doctors. Something is wrong when a system has too many specialists and not enough generalists.


My grandfather was a primary care physician. According to my mom during the depression he was often paid with live chickens, paintings, food whatever people had in those times of economic disaster. Can you imagine a doctor today accepting chickens as payment instead of cash? It would never happen. Doctors today don't know their patients well enough to feel a personal and sympathetic connection that would allow it. Too. their insurance costs and expenses are so high today that doctors are as demanding in payment of a bill owed as is the bookie who threatens to break a leg if not paid on time. Doctors now have "medical corporations" that collect their fees and threaten to ruin the credit ratings if the patient doesn't pay on time.


It's true that technology makes for better treatments and medications, but I think that doctors today have lost so much of the personal relationship and interest in their patients that they do not use the better technology and medicine well. they over-medicate as precaution, and they are coerced by HMO's to prescribe or not prescribe medications or treatments based on costs to the insurance company.

Sigh....Every time I think about the state of doctors today it almost makes me get sick