False Pretense

The more I come into contact with the private healthcare system, the more disheartened I get of the system in place. Everything in the system seems to depend on only one thing. Money. The general feeling I get from the people working in the system, be it the doctors, nurses or the receptionist, is that, no matter what happens, as long as there is a profit, everything's fine.

They don't really care if you live or die, as long as you pay your bills. For all they care, even they've killed hundreds of patients, it doesn't matter, as long as new patients keep coming and the law suits are under control. At the end of the day, it is the billion dollar profit they care about, not you, the patient. The patient is only a means to an end. The end, I would state again, is money.

For quite some time now, I have been a staunch supporter for a health care system whereby the universal health care coverage provided by the government should co-exist with the private sector. I believed such a system would bring about healthy competition to keep each other in check. At the same time, people who can afford the private health care should be allowed to opt for a faster, more efficient service, while the poor still get the essential health coverage from the government. But my recent revelations have led me to think that maybe this isn't such a good idea at all. After all, do you think a doctor would run as fast to a cardiac arrest of a patient he does not care about, as he would to a patient he sincerely cares for? No. In other words, you are jeopardising your health by submitting your care to such a doctor, motivated by only money.

However, little can be done as of now, because the public hospitals are terribly under-funded, has severe staff shortages, and many are operating at near capacity. These all lead to a decrease in quality of care. Hence, opting for public health care really isn't going to improve your care.

For as long as I can remember, the subject of money has been a taboo when an aspiring doctor is asked "why do you want to study medicine?" Be it during a medical school interview or when asked by a friend. Yet, the bureaucrats running the system are all about money. Maybe this hypocritical nonsense is something I have known for years, but have just been desperately hoping it wasn't true. Maybe it's time I get out of my denial phase and accept the fact that the health care system is just like any other industry, motivated only by money. The pharmaceutical industry has long since sold out. There is no reason why the health care industry, one of the largest industry in the world, would not.


TY
Next post is likely to be about secularism. Religious leaders sitting on government committees in a country that openly declares is a secular country, is plain absurd. And a picture post about Canberra too, if I'm not lazy.