I have mixed feelings about the biomedical system that we live with today. To date, I thankfully have not had many health issues that couldn’t be fixed with a week of bed rest, fluids, and a pack of Nyquil. Although my experiences with doctors have been brief and predominately positive, I am a rather skeptical patient; as a medical anthropology/bioethics student who is afraid of needles, perhaps ‘skeptical’ is the best I can shoot for.
One of my great hesitations regarding Western biomedicine is its habit of overmedicalization. In the U.S., we view health care as a business, and prioritize individual agency and quick fixes. Have a headache? Pop an Excedrin. Want to quit smoking? Try a nicotine patch. We want easy answers, and doctors (along with drug companies) are more than eager to sell us solutions. As seen in the video we watched this week, even doctors with the best intentions have a lot to juggle on a daily basis, and sometimes it is just easier to write a quick prescription and move on to the next patient. Add that to the economic incentive for drug companies to push their product as an instant cure, and American health care becomes more about money and less about helping to heal people.
When I was younger, my doctor told me I had asthma. I endured years of breathing treatments with a little machine at home, later followed by a daily inhaler, only to grow out of my asthma issues after I got lazy and stopped taking my medicine. In elementary school, my eye doctor told me that I had an astigmatism and told me I had to wear my glasses every day or my eyes would get worse. After a couple years of dedicated glasses-wearing, I decided I didn’t want to wear them any longer; my eyes strengthened and fixed themselves, and I now have nearly perfect vision. My adolescent acne only cleared up after ditching the harsh facial scrubs prescribed to me by dermatologists.
While these instances and the handful of others I have like them are by no means all-encompassing, our health system has played a more capitalist role in my life. When I am prescribed medicine, I follow my physician’s instructions, but hesitate and ask myself how useful whatever I am being told to take is to me. Am I just being sold pills that have a more psychological, placebo-like benefit than a physical one? Are there other ways to relieve my headaches, like taking a nap or going for a walk (that don’t cost anything)?
We are lucky to have comparatively easy access to medical care in our biomedical system, and the scientifically-supported tests and medications that physicians prescribe to cure our immediate health concerns stand as a major positive aspect of American biomedicine. However, this medical system is driven moreso by profit and throughput, rather than taking the time to help people long-term. It often overlooks the individual lived experience of its patients and dehumanizes people into a list of symptoms to be treated and dismissed.
Unfortunately, I can relate to many of the experiences that you’ve had. One time my sister fell on her wrist and went to urgent care. They told her it wasn’t broken then two days later called to say it was. We also heavily studied this in my history, philosophy, and sociology of science class. We learned that many hospitals resorted to c-sections to make the birth go faster. People learned about this and have started to look for hospitals with the least amount of c-sections.
I think it’s important to be skeptical with medical advice given by doctors. I also agree that hospitals function heavily as a business. However, I think there needs to be a distinction between business and healthcare that our biomedicine system merges. I think that the success of the hospital should be based off of how many patients they’ve helped long-term, not based off of how much money they’ve made from short term solutions.
Finally, I don’t think we should change our system entirely, but as many people can relate to these common experiences, I think it is important to educate ourselves on both the pros and cons of the system, to improve our system’s environment.
I couldn’t agree more with what you said. In a sense, the healthcare system of the Western world, is broken. We are far too focused on profits, and not on people. Therefore issues arise, like the ones that you mentioned. I have experienced the same worry as you have, wondering if the prescriptions I am using are safe, or even necessary. The best example that I can think of the overuse of antibiotics. Far too often healthcare professionals quickly prescribe them for even the most minor complications. A small ear infection, a light UTI, or even a run-of-the-mill cold. We blindly agree with our healthcare providers because we put our faith into their education and skills. This is not to say that all doctors are money hungry, but it is important to note the capitalistic nature of the healthcare industry. But can we blame doctors? They are overwhelmed due to burn out and numerous patients, so it is easier to write a prescription and move onto the next patient. We even saw this in the documentary we watched this week. So, how do we fix the system?
I took a class during my sophomore year called social differences and inequalities. A topic we talked about in the class was Western Medicine and the health care system in America. In the class, we talked about how the health care system is set up to make people overpay for medicine when they can get it for cheaper from a different country. Ex: The cost of insulin has risen in a way where it makes it impossible for people in lower-income households to afford medicine. At times they have to ration their insulin over the course of three months. A person could die from doing this because they’re not getting the proper dose of insulin they need to function. In addition, people in the U.S> can get insulin cheaper in Canada than they can in America. You also don’t need a prescription in Canada to get insulin.
I am too skeptical about the Western Biomedicine and health care system in America. From my own personal experience, there have been times I was diagnosed with an infection and the doctor would prescribe me antibiotics, however, the infection would be gone for about two weeks and next thing I know it would come right back. I kept being prescribed the same antibiotics instead of actually figuring out where the root of the problem was. It cost me lots of money for doctor visits and treatments and caused a lot of confusion and frustration on my end. It makes me wonder if doctors are just prescribing medicine to patients without really trying to figure out the problem. Another situation where I have experienced this is when I was diagnosed with acid reflux and instead of trying to pinpoint the root of where it came from I was told to take zantac. My problem with that is that it only covers the symptoms not the actual cause of it. I always thought doctors just prescribe medicine that temporarily fixes the problem or cover the symptoms to keep patients coming back and spending more money.
I also have a problem when doctors don’t take into consideration a patient’s concerns or when a patient tells them about past health issues they have. I’ve experienced a few doctors like that and it was almost as if regardless of the questions or concerns I voiced they disregarded it and they were always right.
I like how you mentioned that within your experiences you eventually stopped doing what the doctors said and eventually your issue cured itself within time. I feel like that’s very important when it comes to health. At the end of the day, the doctors don’t know our bodies like we know our bodies. They say and do all these different things to fix our health issue but at time if we do our own research and listen to our bodies we can fix health issues better than a doctor can.
I couldn’t agree more! It is good to be skeptical of doctors, especially in this day and age since the medical industry is largely fueled by capitalism, which leads to over-prescribing of meds and a thing known as “Cascade prescribing,” a phenomenon where prescriptions lead to serious heath issues which require more prescriptions which in turn require more prescriptions and so on. Sometimes, common sense medicine and letting children develop and grow naturally, is the best way to go.