What You Don't Know Can Hurt You

Health care in America is a messy and controversial topic. Opinions vary from person to person so it can be hard to know what to believe. In order to have a proper understanding of what the health care system in America actually looks like it is necessary to look at the facts, as ugly as they may be. Though many people have opposing views there is one thing that everyone can agree on, the system is far from perfect. Everybody likes to think that all doctors are good, that what they are being prescribed is necessary, and how they are being treated is fair. As nice as this is to think, that’s not how the system works. The American health care system has been corrupted, and the consequences can quite literally be deadly.

In the United States the kind of insurance you have can ultimately determine what kind of care you receive. According to a 2017 government census the “US population is approximately 327. 5 million”. Of the population PBS states that “44 million people in this country have no health insurance, and another 38 million have inadequate insurance”. The high costs of health care can partly be blamed on administrative and drug costs. Because of this, many people who are not covered neglect to see doctors when necessary because of the cost. Otis Webb Brawley, M. D. and author of How We Do Harm recalls the case of one of his patients. She was a low class black woman, and a single mother. She noticed a lump in her breast, but because of inadequate insurance and the fear of missing work she put off visiting a doctor for over eleven years. What finally brought her in to see a doctor was an automastectomy, which simply means her breast had fallen off on its own. Had she come in sooner they would have been able to help her, and could have possibly cured her cancer. But because of the fear of costs, she withheld treatment and ended up dying from her cancer at the age of 55. Brawley notes that her case was not a rare one, and that instances like these happen more often than they should. Insurance is meant to be helpful and to provide security in the case of illness and injuries. However, having insurance doesn’t always guarantee that you will receive proper care.

There have been cases where patients start by going to a private care facility, but when their bills add up and insurance no longer covers the costs they are forced to go to public hospitals. This was the case for another patient of Brawley. Another woman who had been diagnosed with breast cancer ended up coming to Grady, the hospital where Brawley worked, after she could no longer afford the services offered at the private hospital. Brawley read over her files and redid tests only to find some very disturbing information. At the hospital where Brawley works doctors do not make commission for assigning patients certain types of care or by prescribing certain types of medication. This was not the case for the doctor who had previously been treating the patient. At private care facilities doctors profit from certain tests and procedures that their patients undergo. What Dr. Brawley discovered was that the woman had been undergoing treatment that was still relatively new and hadn’t been proven to work. Her previous doctor had not informed her of all that it would entail, and this caused her to suffer more than necessary. It turned out that the kind of treatment her doctor had prescribed for her had actually made her cancer and her side effects worse. The most terrifying thing about it was that the doctor had done little research and hadn’t looked into the treatment too intensely, the only reason he had recommended it was because it was a new treatment, and by administering it to his patients he would financially benefit.

When looking at the pros and cons between having and not having health care a crossroad is reached. On one hand having coverage is a good thing, but it can cause you to put too much trust in doctors who may only want to make more money. On the other hand having no insurance can cause you to avoid doctors and let your disease worsen, but it can also help you get genuine care from doctors who will only do treatments that truly benefit the patient. Though in many cases this care often comes too late. According to Transformation of the American Healthcare System: Implications for Cancer Care “cancer is one of the top five most expensive diseases to treat in the United States”. This is largely due to the fact that equipment and medicine is very advanced, but it is also due to doctors overprescribing unnecessary treatments and medications. Many doctors are quick to diagnose patients and to send them off to treatment right away. Brawley suggests that it is always best to get a second opinion and to do thorough research before you begin doing anything. Doctors aren’t the only ones at fault here, pharmaceutical companies also play a huge role in influencing naïve patients that they need their newest medication. In How We Do Harm Brawley mentions how pharmaceutical companies mess with people’s heads by running ads and commercials that make it seem like they have the ultimate drug. The commercials portray people living their lives as if they’re disease free. The problem with this is that the people in the commercial are disease free.

In one instance Brawley noted that “Pharmaceutical companies were promoting an untested therapy that was purported to make patients feel better and stronger when, in fact, it caused strokes and heart attacks and in some cases made tumors grow”. This doesn’t exactly sound like a wonder drug, but did that stop doctors from prescribing it? Absolutely not. Brawley also said that “The vast majority of physicians treating cancer were prescribing these drugs and benefiting handsomely from doing so”. With all of this going on who can be trusted? Most people only know the bare minimum when it comes to health care. Because of patients’ lack of understanding it makes for the perfect opportunity for doctors to take advantage of them. Many doctors don’t see patients for what they truly are, real people living real lives. Instead they just see numbers on a paper or as money in their bank account. It can be shocking to see just how corrupted the system is. Shouldn’t health care be a basic human right? According to Debates on U. S. Health Care “The united states is not currently respecting the universal right to health” and “Achieving the right to health, not simply a right to health care, would require not only increased access to services but also the creation of conditions that make health possible”. This doesn’t mean that all doctors are bad, and that all treatments are dangerous. It does mean however that just because somebody is a doctor, doesn’t mean they know everything.

There are a lot of changes that need to be made, but it is a slow process. For every doctor or drug company being stopped for putting someone’s life in danger, somewhere else the process is just getting started. Though certain types of people are more susceptible due to income, race, and age nobody is immune. As scary as it all may be it’s important to be informed and to take the necessary steps so that you don’t end up getting hurt worse. In a perfect world a doctor’s only goal is to help their patients heal and get better, unfortunately though, sometimes the people who are expected to help you may actually be the ones hurting you.