I went to the pediatrician for my son’s two year checkup the other day. The doctor gave him a great report, which was no surprise. Originally he wasn’t due for any shots, but a new law went into effect requiring a hepatitis shot.
For good measure, the nurse asked about giving him and my daughter an influenza shot. I am a strong skeptic of the effectiveness of flu shots and have voiced these concerns to Kelly. The nurse brushed these concerns aside, repeating that they’re safe. I grudgingly went along. Both kids got a flu shot.
As I was leaving their office, it occured to me that if the pediatric office was really concerned about the spread of the flu, why don’t they clean the waiting room seats and toys after patients come in? While there’s a “sick” and “well” side to the room, the only toy table in the room is right in the middle. I recalled a news story a few years back that elderly patients were better off not coming in for a flu shot, as their chance of infection was greater from a visit to the waiting room than from picking it up from their everyday routines.
The pharmaceutical shill in the waiting room as I left (the second I’d seen that morning) reminded me that the healthcare industry is just that: an industry. Its primary goal is to make a profit, not to make people healthy. It’s a business first. Doctors would rather sell you a flu shot than disinfect their waiting rooms.
Early this year I attended the HIPAA trade show in San Diego’s cavernous convention center. The size of the show dwarfed anything I believe I’ve been to. Floor after floor and booth after booth of vendors selling to healthcare professionals. The amount money in healthcare is staggering. I imagined it was what a military arms show must be like, with huge companies hunting huge contracts. There’s good money to be made in both taking bodies apart and putting them back together.
What a waste of money and resources. Yeah, we’ve got some smart people working on lifesaving solutions, but only with an eye to the bottom line. Sure, foreign kings come to the U.S. for their treatment, but the reason they do is because they are the few who can afford to.
But … what if the focus was different? What if profit wasn’t the goal anymore? What if patients – not their wallets – came first? What if doctors were judged by how healthy their patients are – how many doctor’s visits were avoided – rather than how much money they made? What if everyone had access to top-notch, affordable healthcare? I think you’d see a fundamental shift in thinking.
I’m still marveling at last year’s visit to an Italian emergency-room with Travis. Not that it was a lot of fun hauling a six-month-old into the hospital while on vacation, but how helpful the staff was. How genuinely concerned they seemed with Travis’s health. Our son was not just a number, or a line on a profit-and-loss chart. He was a human who needed help. We walked out with a reassurance of our son’s health as well as a greater appreciation for socialized medicine.
Instead we have bloated, faceless, expensive healthcare in this country, where dollars flow faster than IVs and media breathlessly flogging the latest virus to be feared.
Perhaps one day we’ll get serious about reforming our healthcare in this country. As long as its driven by dollars our best interests won’t be served. What a shame.
