this morning, as i was perusing my email, i happened to read a question posted on an online forum from a woman who wanted to know if her doctor was jumping the gun by ordering an invasive test to "rule out cancer."
i urged her to seek a second opinion.
just this past winter, i watched several friends undergo a battery of tests to "rule out" all sorts of possible conditions - each one turned out negative. there was nothing wrong with any of my friends. the cause in each case was ultimately determined to be stress.
yes, i said to them, stress from having to endure all the tests. i wondered what their doctors would've said if any of them had had the balls to ask how necessary the tests REALLY were, or how necessary they were so the doctors could feel they'd covered their asses sufficiently.
because in my opinion, that's what we have in this country - a system we call "health care" whose practices are actually dictated by health INSURERS, and whose philosophy of "preventive medicine" seems instead to be motivated by the practice of defensive medicine. in other words, its the practice of - "let's see how many things we can possibly figure out you don't have so in the event you do develop any of them, you won't be able to come back and blame me."
and in the process, they use fear of impending terminal illness and death to scare people into undergoing what in my opinion are barrages of unnecessary tests, while the insurance companies rack up dollar after dollar.
there's something wrong with a system where we can seriously equate access to health CARE with health INSURANCE. there's something wrong with a system where doctors feel compelled to subject their clients to unnecessary test after unnecessary test to rule out possiblity after possiblity simply so they can sleep easier at night. there's something wrong with a system where the first person who greets you at the hospital door, no matter what your condition - unless of course you're comatose or dead - is a person who asks you how you intend to pay.
and furthermore, the war will end. blessed be.
6 comments:
oh boy don't get me started on this, one of my hot buttons! i could not agree with you more. also i may be contacting you for a reading. dina
You have me in total agreement with you, Annie!
Hopefully things will change. Health care is a right, not a privilege. The cost to our future and society is too great.
GGGGGGgggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrr ...
Please, don't get me going! Especially now with the *National* Chamber of Commerce loading in to lobby and kill anything good that the current administration is attempting to do on the (so called) "Health Care" front.
Everyone, call your reps - speak for yourself - make it personal ... don't let the rat-fink-jackass-corporate-lobbyists speak for you!
And I won't even mention the "Health Care" ::rolls eyes -n- gags:: Insurance industry.
And did I mention Gggggggrrrrrrrrr...
(man, my hackles are UP now!)
Yes, yes, yes!
My Aunt who is 83 had pain in her stomach. The ER doctor could not figure it out. He told she had to stay the night or she would die. She told him if he had no clue that she had to go home and take care of my uncle. She went home. She saw her doctor on Monday and showed him the note from the ER saying she would die if she left. They LOL. They did eventually find out the problem but it was her terms she refused to let the doctor dictate everything without question.
yes yes yes and also they are scared of the possibilities of law suits I would imagine. I have gone thru a bunch of tests which I did because the history of cancer in my family is bad, and I do have health insurance. If I didn't I don't think I could/would have gone through with all of them...or any of them. The tests they SHOULD have performed, like a simple blood test, were never done. Now THAT is the one I am going to pursue....
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