I’ve had these two issues for more than a month now—the outsides of my ankles are weirdly, painlessly swollen and my right knee and shin have been hurting.
There are all sorts of incentives in healthcare that have driven the individual medical practitioner to the sideline. You end up with kafkaesque beuracracy usually tied to a hospital group which is interested in generating revenue.
All those tests? Besides the cost they probably generate medical coding which depending on you insurance raises revenue (if you have any kind of government insurance this is the case, and if you don’t they need to do it anyway so they can do it for the government people).
Lastly there can be a culture gap. Lots of places are mostly foreign doctors now and in addition to the communication gap there is also a very different culture of medical care in many countries (where second opinions and questioning the doctor are not considered appropriate).
I have no solution here beyond “be rich enough to avoid it all”. Attempting to shove more money into the system got us here in the first place and will likely remain the same for 9X% of society.
"Be rich enough to avoid it all" is really becoming the mantra of tolerable modern-day living. I wish there were a parallel system where physicians and patients who want more human-scaled care could find each other, though I'm questioning whether such physicians exist any more.
I found a concierge doctor, but with that setup you pay an extra flat rate to the doctor every year, in addition to health insurance. I'm sure there are some variations in how the concierge physicians operate, but this program makes it possible for mine to be an old-fashioned GP/primary doc who has time to spend with his patients, getting to know them, and treating them as whole persons, overseeing all their care -- and even making house calls. It seems that many doctors are also victims of the same overly systematized and regulated, profiteering thing that is Medicine these days.
You bring up an important point: Many doctors are probably as unsatisfied with the current health "care" arrangement as their patients are. Your situation sounds very good. Would you be comfortable sharing where you are geographically, or the name of the practice you're working with? I don't mean to overstep and don't know if sharing that kind of information is completely revealing, so please forgive if I'm asking something unreasonable or dopey.
I’m in northern California. A while back I did a search for “concierge doctors” in my county, and only discovered one, although I learned later there are two more. So you might ask around.
Have you considered concierge medical care? I haven't tried it myself but people seem to like it. Something like this - https://craftconcierge.com/
Idea being that a doctor sells a limited number of subscriptions and the patients who join get 24/7 access to a doctor. I understand the care is more focused and involved. Downside is that they don't take insurance.
Thank you for sending this link. The only person I know who has concierge care pays $30,000 a month for it, so I always assumed it was a luxury option that was not available to me. I'm glad to see that that model has more affordable choices. If it's what they say it is on their web site, it could definitely fill the hungry gap for me. Thanks again!
There are all sorts of incentives in healthcare that have driven the individual medical practitioner to the sideline. You end up with kafkaesque beuracracy usually tied to a hospital group which is interested in generating revenue.
All those tests? Besides the cost they probably generate medical coding which depending on you insurance raises revenue (if you have any kind of government insurance this is the case, and if you don’t they need to do it anyway so they can do it for the government people).
Lastly there can be a culture gap. Lots of places are mostly foreign doctors now and in addition to the communication gap there is also a very different culture of medical care in many countries (where second opinions and questioning the doctor are not considered appropriate).
I have no solution here beyond “be rich enough to avoid it all”. Attempting to shove more money into the system got us here in the first place and will likely remain the same for 9X% of society.
"Be rich enough to avoid it all" is really becoming the mantra of tolerable modern-day living. I wish there were a parallel system where physicians and patients who want more human-scaled care could find each other, though I'm questioning whether such physicians exist any more.
I found a concierge doctor, but with that setup you pay an extra flat rate to the doctor every year, in addition to health insurance. I'm sure there are some variations in how the concierge physicians operate, but this program makes it possible for mine to be an old-fashioned GP/primary doc who has time to spend with his patients, getting to know them, and treating them as whole persons, overseeing all their care -- and even making house calls. It seems that many doctors are also victims of the same overly systematized and regulated, profiteering thing that is Medicine these days.
You bring up an important point: Many doctors are probably as unsatisfied with the current health "care" arrangement as their patients are. Your situation sounds very good. Would you be comfortable sharing where you are geographically, or the name of the practice you're working with? I don't mean to overstep and don't know if sharing that kind of information is completely revealing, so please forgive if I'm asking something unreasonable or dopey.
I’m in northern California. A while back I did a search for “concierge doctors” in my county, and only discovered one, although I learned later there are two more. So you might ask around.
I'm definitely going to get serious about finding something like this. Thank you!
I sent you a direct message here on Substack.
Have you considered concierge medical care? I haven't tried it myself but people seem to like it. Something like this - https://craftconcierge.com/
Idea being that a doctor sells a limited number of subscriptions and the patients who join get 24/7 access to a doctor. I understand the care is more focused and involved. Downside is that they don't take insurance.
Thank you for sending this link. The only person I know who has concierge care pays $30,000 a month for it, so I always assumed it was a luxury option that was not available to me. I'm glad to see that that model has more affordable choices. If it's what they say it is on their web site, it could definitely fill the hungry gap for me. Thanks again!