I found this rant in my drafts from who knows when (most likely during quarantine when I was going crazy), and for some reason it is crazy to think I wrote some of this because it's pretty darn well articulated and passionate. I don't know what happened to me with the semester but I've been having trouble articulating my frustrations with the healthcare system (or even feeling that passionate enough about it anymore) so in honor of that, I'm going to post this short, unfinished rant.
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The fact of the matter is that physicians care the most about those who are on one far end of the spectrum: those who are dying. It's not their fault though, because with thousands of patients to care for, of course you'd want to put your attention on those who need it most at that moment. However, if we always put more energy towards the people who need it most, we pay less attention to those who are just in the middle... the people who have the tendency to either fall in one direction of life or death very easily.
For example, we want to put lots of effort into those who are struggling with severe anxiety and depression, but the brain is malleable for everyone. Everyone should seek therapy to establish healthy thinking patterns and coping mechanisms, but not everyone does. Therefore, it's so easy for one to fall to showing signs of anxiety and depression.
A lot of power is put into the hands of the physician to diagnose and treat the patient with the best possible treatment plan. But with barely knowing a patient and only having 2-3 past exchanges and a chart of past data that is susceptible to inaccuracies, how exactly can they do that? In my opinion, the patient knows best because they live in their body each day. Their experiences surpass any chart a doctor can put together because those are lived experiences. However, our healthcare system gives our physicians all of the power, not the patient.
You can argue that "Oh! You get to pick your doctor and do research on who they are and pick your health care plan yaddah yaddah". But most health care plans are too expensive and don't have enough actual options for the patient in their area. Remember, accessibility and location are very important for mid and low-income households. So right there we have a gap that favors the wealthy... which is a whole other flaw of the system I can go on and on about. ANYWAYS, these physicians most likely don't give a damn about you other than making sure they do the bare minimum to push you off and be someone else's responsibility. But if YOU feel something is off you should have some way to look more into it. Again, this is your body and your lived experience. You value your life more than most, so you (to an extent) know what's best.
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