How Can We Stop Medicine from Being a Business?

A letter sent to us by physician Dr. Angelov of Boston, Massachusetts USA:

What is Wrong with Modern Medical Insurance?

35% of the stimulus package intended to jumpstart the US economy is going to the medical industry, because it is one of the hardest-hit by the financial crisis. Insurance rates have gone up, but people’s incomes certainly haven’t, so many can no longer afford doctor visits or medication. It’s even worse with the unemployed, who have lost health insurance entirely.

The government is trying to salvage the situation, but unfortunately, it’s using the same measures that caused the medical industry to go into crisis in the first place: allocating funds to people’s egos. But our egos are what caused the crisis! How so?

People’s egos, their desire to make more and more money, have become more important than healthy relationships between doctors and patients. Modern medicine is run by the profit principle: It’s not about how effective it is at helping the sick, but about how much profit it brings to everyone involved.

Doctors make money from their patient’s illnesses and medical procedures, and thus have little motivation to cure them, and patients, in turn, look for opportunities to sue the doctors for malpractice. There is no trust between them since the entire modern medical insurance revolves around money, rather than care for the patients and their health.

The Medical Industry was Not Always this Way

In ancient China, 4000 years ago, every morning a healer would pass by every house in the village. A vase was placed by the entrance to every house, containing a coin for the healer, signifying that everyone in that house was healthy. If the vase was empty, this meant that someone in the house was sick. The healer would enter and treat the sick person to the best of his ability; and the herbs, needles and other medical supplies were paid for by the coin that hadn’t been put inside the vase. In his free time, the healer would also go to people’s houses to make sure their diets and lifestyles were healthy.

Back then, health insurance was completely opposite to what it is today. People paid to help keep others healthy, and the person who was ill did not have to pay.

Could this Ever Work Today?

Clearly, we have to stop medicine from being a business. Today, doctors’ salaries depend on the number of sick patients they have, the number of medical procedures they perform, and whether the hospitals are filled with sick patients. The system is built so doctors profit by keeping the patients sick for as long as possible! However, shouldn’t their first and foremost concern be for the patients to be healthy?

Yet, can we really go back to the “good Samaritan” system of ancient times? No, we can’t, because back then, people’s egos were much smaller than today. In addition, the problem is global, not local. Under these circumstances, the only way to create a healthy medical system is by creating a global solution that will address the egos of today’s people.

If society as a whole will pay for health, rather than illness, doctors will have incentive to prevent ailments from occurring in the first place. Then people’s health will improve and health care expenses will decrease.

Money should be removed from the doctor-patient relationship. A doctor should receive administrative, not monetary, punishment for mistakes he makes, and a patient should not be able to demand monetary compensation through the courts. Instead, the only kind of compensation he should receive is treatment.

In Latin, “doctor” means “teacher.” So, a doctor is someone who should teach people how to live without getting sick! How different is this definition from our present, egoistic medical system!?