:pop: interesting perspective boondocks. I work healthcare...see the abuses and hypocrisy everyday, from both angles. Personal accountability is something extremely lacking today. So is honesty and integrity from the insurance side of things. Have a hard time feeling 'compassion' for the younger folks on medicare/medicaid who abuse the system to no end, bog down the Emergency rooms with their bs(headaches, fevers, cough, cold, etc) because they dont want to pay for tylenol at the local drug store, or pay any kind of fee to use a clinic. Meanwhile the older generations, who have more than paid their fair share into medicare/medicaid, get lost, overlooked, or just plain frustrated when they have to wait for hours to be treated for legitimate health issues because of the abuses. And EVERYONE wants to blame the hospital staff because it all takes too long! Not to mention, in healthcare nowadays, the focus is not appropriate interventions and outcomes for the treatment of the disease process as it is for pt satisfaction. We have minimized the importance of the actual science of medicine and focused on subjective things like pt satisfaction (translated: did they kiss my azz, fluff my pillow enough, keep my coffee warm enough,,etc). If you try to tell a pt the truth nowadays; most times, it negatively shows on the survey! I say we, but reality is, when the govt decided that's how reimbursement is going to go, it set the precedent for private insurance companies to do the same. And we wonder why our best and brightest rarely choose medicine now as a career. Cant blame them. Might as well get a degree in hospitality or customer service and forget the sciences.
