These days — with "Covid still hanging in the air" — it seems like we talk a lot more about health and wellness than we did, just five years ago.
But are we really talking about health? Or are we just bogging down in a mire of fear over what some virus or illness might do to our world... and our families? Or what evils governments and pharmaceutical companies might visit upon us?
I'm not sure when it happened, but "going to see my doctor" is no longer a simple process, and it feels increasingly like a bureaucracy rather than about my well being.
What I mean is, if I am in her office for a medication review, she can't spend significant time talking about an actual health issue, because "it has to be written up differently."
And, in fact, I would need a new appointment for that purpose. Which is not available for another six to eight weeks!
I should add here that this is my experience here in the US of A where we like to demean and ridicule socialized medicine in Canada and Europe because things "take forever."
The "medication review" appointment I recently went to was actually made back in January... about three months previously.
I'm told that the whole circus is mostly the fault of insurance companies, who have very specific rules for everything, and can definitely be blamed for the fact that something simple that should cost $100 is instead billed at $500.
Regardless, there is little incentive for healing under the current system, where everyone is basically a "profit center" rather than a patient. Accordingly, doctors treat rather than heal their patients.
Of course, it's a double-edged sword... it's not just doctors, but also the patients.
Back when I lived in Texas, my friend Lorraine was a doctor with a family practice and she admitted that while she did want to heal her patients, they often wanted instant "magic pill" solutions, not to modify their behavior to get naturally healthier over a period of months.
And so, she ended up following "the prescribed path" of treating patients with whatever could make them feel better in the moment, while not necessarily offering a path to healing.
Perhaps the problem has more to do with society than with the field of Healthcare... because so much is oriented towards immediacy.
Still, if I were going to the doctor because of headaches, I would want more than just getting prescribed pain medication every visit... I'd want the doctor to dig into why I keep getting those headaches, so we could take steps to change the underlying cause.
Good luck with that! There might be an appointment available early next year... but be aware that your insurance might not cover if the outcome is that you stop needing medication...
Thanks for stopping by and have a great Friday!
Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation! I do my best to answer comments, even if it sometimes takes a few days!
Greetings bloggers and social content creators! This article was created via PeakD, a blogging application that's part of the Hive Social Content Experience. If you're a blogger, writer, poet, artist, vlogger, musician or other creative content wizard, come join us! Hive is a little "different" because it's not run by a "company;" it operates via the consensus of its users and your content can't be banned, censored, taken down or demonetized. And that COUNTS for something, in these uncertain times! So if you're ready for the next generation of social content where YOU retain ownership and control, come by and learn about Hive and make an account!
(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly and uniquely for this platform — NOT posted anywhere else!)
Created at 2024-05-02 22:45 PDT
1140/2398
