Obviously. This one doctor erring on the conservative side and not immediately taking a sharp instrument to your friend's eyelid proves that all doctors are corrupt and/or stupid, and the whole system is a scam.

Or maybe doctors generally know what they're doing and can, on average, perform their profession better than a random guy on the internet.

I'm convinced it's a scam based on my own experiences in U.S.A and the third world. I got a throat infection in India. I went to the pharmacy, took antibiotics for $2. It's done. If that happens in the US, I'm forced to first visit the doctor, pay $250. Then pay some $30 for the antibiotic and even before that have to pay the insurance company hundreds of dollars anticipating these things. Another recent one is spine issue. I paid $4 for orthopedic consultation and $50 for MRI. Check what it costs in US. I have several such experiences. So I'm not a "random guy on the internet". I know what I'm talking about.

It's a scam, but not because you didn't get your preferred treatment first time but because you're required to pay ridiculous amounts for the service in the first place.

(The equivalent experience in England&Wales would be free, apart from $10 prescription charge for each prescription, which is waivable for quite a lot of categories of people with low income)

No prescription charges in Scotland or Northern Ireland:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12928485

True, good point.

What are your consulting fees?

? All medical consultations are free in this system. It's rationed by queuing - if your condition isn't urgent you may have to wait a few more months for a specialist.

Someone pays. All the software devs in this thread ranting about overpayment of physicians should think about their hourly consultation rate and their praise of articles like "fuck you, pay me". Or other articles talking about how "many years of experience built to give me the ability to provide a solution in 5 minutes, which is why I deserve to charge $150 an hour".

Physicians are the same. Someone has to pay for our services. In other systems, taxes pay. In the USA, insurance and the patient does.

I can't speak about operational costs. However drugs in india are so cheap because India is the country where most generic drugs are manufactured. There is a 30 min documentary on YT about it called "India the Pharmacy of the World"". Very interesting to watch, it gives you a good history on pharma companies doing the chemistry equivalent of patent trolling that you see in the big consumer electronic & software companies

Yeah, this anecdote definitely proves that.

Antibiotics are cheap. A three month supply may well be cheaper than even simple surgical drainage.

The doctor's obligation is not to "find the cheapest possible treatment" (especially one where the over prescription of generic antibiotics is more problematic than beneficial), especially if the patient is informed.

In the individual case, it's dubious to suggest that surgery is a less conservative option than antibiotics. Yes, antibiotics are woefully over-used (though the overwhelming majority of their use — something on the order of 80% — is in livestock), but the physician's obligation to their patients is to treat their presenting problem, and in the way that is least harmful. Typically, that's taken to mean more conservative approaches first.