When I was in the US, I needed a certain type of inhaler. It cost $150. I kid you not, I was furious! I had to pay knowing full well, the same inhaler cost £5 in the UK. Talk about a serious markup!
Now back in the UK. Before I go back. I will visit my doctor about 5 times and stock up on them. Bring as many as I can in the UK so that I never run out again!
Nowadays, I have a friend from Cuba who also has Asthma and can buy them for less than a dollar with no prescription. So I just buy him a case of beer and get a year's worth of Salbutamol inhalers.
I can't find somewhere as cheap to get my Advair, but I find I don't really need that one.
The healthcare system has problems, but NOT because of most doctors. Yes, just like in every field, there are unscrupulous individuals... but most of the people I have known and worked with are not sociopaths in white coats. Just follow the money... Medicare Part D was the single biggest travesty visited on the American people in recent memory. It was literally a theft of our tax money and a gift to the drug companies. While Insurance companies, hospitals, drug companies, devices companies, etc. continue to increase gains and conspire to steal from the healthcare system (inversions, mergers, price-fixing, the list goes on...) physician pay actually represents a small percentage of healthcare costs. (Depending on who you get the numbers from, it is about 10% of the total). Believe me, when I have to get healthcare, I see the same problems you do. I've waited on hold, been over-billed, late appointments, all of it... even medical complications. The fact is, the bureaucracy is strangling any attempts at improvement.
I'll give you an example, I work in a bunch of different healthcare systems and each one of them is required to independently verify my credentials. Everything from my medical school diploma to my training and license. It requires primary source too! So every hospital--even different hospitals owned by the same system--has to do this incredibly redundant and wasteful process. Not to mention that it does nothing to ensure quality. So here's a whole army of people doing something that should be a simple database query that takes 1 minute. That's increased cost. There are these companies now that an insurer can hire to field imaging orders and determine which are appropriate and which are not. If they save the insurer even $1 over what they are being paid... then they win. Meanwhile, that's maybe $1-2 million that could've just been used to pay for care... instead it's going to a middleman simply to DENY care!
Believe me. Your frustrations are justified... but don't hang the physicians out to dry. My generation was not the architects of this disaster and we are suffering from it too. We are still individuals, wage-earners. We are not the corporations that would happily merge and invert our way off-shore. They are the real conspirators in this.
I hate to be that guy, but I have been to too many unneeded office visits over my years, or have been told flat out Dr. Whatever charges $350/hr. Hour? It's always just a short visit. As, I've gotten older, I don't want to spend to much time with them. The shorter the office visit the better.
Yea, and I know, your physician lives are so terrible. You had to pay $400,000 for school. You had to get through that residency in which you where hazed, by other Doctors. You have to listen to people whine, and complain--in many cases because they are sick, and in pain. (Get ready for the "I don't treat pain" Doctor", and the FDA is on their side. I don't feel like debating this one either. Too tired.)
Yea, you guessed right, I'm no fan of the American Doctor. I don't like the system? Or, I just don't like American Doctors, with that ego. An ego that seems undeserved after getting into med school, in so, so many cases.
On another note, I'm shocked at how seemingly little advances medicine has made in the last 30 years. Advances that help the patients. Not theoretical advances that look nice on paper.
I smile, and kiss their ass, but there's no love, nor even much respect anymore.
Signed,
Alotofpatients
(I'm not comming back to this post. I will add this, I used to think older doctors were better. I think I was really wrong. In my life, I have met one doctor who appeared to get better with age. He had some unusual medical issues throughout his life that appeared to make him care?)