Modern Medicine

The entire country is waiting to see what will happen to health care here in the next decade. Our current system has lots of flaws, and we all know it.

Prescription drugs have become unaffordable for many Americans. Most of them are cheap to manufacture, but by the time they get to the consumer and everyone along the line has taken a mark-up, they're often unaffordable. As much as we all growl at paying our health care premiums, when we get our bills for medical services, we can understand why all health care services are so expensive. Have you checked out the cost of a short ambulance ride and even a brief, one-day stay in the hospital lately, or even the cost of an out-patient procedure? We won't even get into expensive surgery and long-term hospital stays. If you have health insurance, your company pays, but in the long-run, high costs just mean bigger premiums for you.

The pressure on the entire medical industry to earn the profit margin necessary just to stay afloat is mind-boggling. Doctors, likewise, have hectic schedules which no longer give them the luxury of "getting to know you" office visits.

That's why it was refreshing to see a television news segment a few weeks ago in which one doctor makes old-fashioned house calls and often does blood work, EKGs, and other simple procedures right in the home. Another keeps in touch with his patients on a regular basis via e-mail. Often, he can answer their questions or quiet their concerns without the need for an office visit - a time-saver for both him and the patient. How many times have you said to yourself, if only I could have a two-minute phone conversation with the doctor, and instead had to wait (im)patiently for several days before you could even get an appointment? It sort of adds insult to injury when you realize that if your insurance is with an HMO, in which you choose a primary care physician, the doctor gets a monthly stipend for all of his or her patients whether or not they ever come in for office visits or not. It somehow doesn't seem quite right, because "managed" care is something few physicians have time for today.

Modern medicine is a far cry from that of our grandparents' day, and while we all may wish, on occasion, for the "good old days," realistically we all know that today's medical advances have saved millions of lives and made life more bearable for millions more.

However, there are many aspects of our health care system that need changing, and they'll eventually come. Some may be for the better, and others, well….Hardly a day goes by but what a new medical advance is reported somewhere in the world. Maybe we'll be fortunate enough in our lifetime to see modern medicine coupled with some old-fashioned practices that we'd all like to see return.