The Quality of Mercy

The thing about health care in the United States is that it sucks.
I don't mean it is kind of inconvenient to go to the doctor or
a bit pricey but damn it's great quality health care once you
get past the bullshit. I mean it's ALL bullshit all the time and
I'm really not sure it's all that good either.

You see, medicine is a for-profit business in the United States
and that doesn't guarantee quality. The practice of medicine
began out of genuine compassion, but these days it's about
as compassionate as an assembly line.

I don't mind docs making money. I don't even mind drug
companies making money. What I do mind is greed infecting
every aspect of what should be about compassion and healing.
A lot of things are great until money and greedheads get involved.
Religion for example. Smart-ass folks will say that religion has
caused more bloodshed in this world than anything else. I'm not
so sure that's the case any more. Religion wasn't doing too bad
until money got involved. It's no coincidence that a good deal of
gold was brought back from the Crusades. It's no coincidence that
Conquistadors brought crosses and left with Incan treasures.

Introduce money into any system and it stinks to high heaven.

I got me the diabetes and I really think my doctor is a good guy.
I think he really wants to give me the best possible treatment
options that are out there, but I can't trust the system that provides
the drugs and processes my payments. I go to the office and it feels
like it's more about getting my insurance card info correct, taking my
money and then oops, we forgot to do what you came in here for.

I also don't know how much influence the drug companies have over him.
He might honestly think that the drugs he prescribes me are the
best out there but maybe he's just been unduly influenced by some
slick douchebags with a good rap and some free samples. If the Lantus
guy gives my doc a lot of free insulin to give to his patients who can't
afford to buy the stuff that could easily influence a good man to
prescribe the stuff to me even though I have to pay $70 a bottle for
the shit. My insurance company only saves me $8 per bottle at this
time. And that's just one script. The more I spend on drugs, the less
I have to spend on things like proper nutrition. Fresh vegetables
aren't cheap you know.

And because everything is so freakin' expensive, everyone tries to
get as much dosh out of you, your insurance company and anyone else
stupid enough to get involved in medicine directly or tangentially at
every turn. I appreciate that it costs money to create new medicines,
but when was the last time a drug company came up with a cure for
anything?

Here's something to consider: There's no profit in curing disease. There
is only profit in treating disease. You could waste millions on researching
a cure for diabetes but what would be the corporate points? That would
be like McDonald's inventing a hamburger that guaranteed that you would
never eat another hamburger again. It would work against their primary
purpose, which is NOT to make hamburgers, it IS to make money. Mickey
D's could make mud pies. So long as people bought 'em by the bag full,
they wouldn't give a crap. Cure diabetes and suddenly millions of paying
customers disappear. Better to come up with ways of making people
live with a disease with a variety of symptoms each with its own very
expensive prescription medication. That's where the money is.

Where is the moral imperative to do good works in this world where the
pursuit of profit seems to justify everything from selling crap to starting
wars? Corporations are ruining this country with their mammon worship
and we are not only letting them do it, we are complicit in our own
destruction.