Dr.Ben's Advice

[Guest guest]

A Sick Health Care System

 

By Ben Kim, D.C.

 

One of the main goals that I have for this web site is

to encourage our readers to learn how to be their own

best doctors.

 

Please don't misunderstand me; I think that there are

some wonderfully caring and competent doctors in our

world.

 

But there are also many doctors who don't have each of

their patients' best interests at or even near the top

of their list of priorities.

 

Over the years, it's become clear to me that a big

part of the problem with our health care system is the

system itself; our current health care system doesn't

encourage doctors to teach their patients to prevent

disease and address health conditions with simple food

and lifestyle choices.

 

Take, for example, the health care system here in

Canada. I often hear leaders of other countries, most

notably, the United States, tout the universal health

care system in Canada as being the ideal system - one

in which every man, woman, and child has access to

free health care.

 

While on the surface the Canadian system appears to be

an effective one, as far as I can tell, it is just as

sick as other health care systems throughout the

world.

 

To be more specific, medical doctors here in Ontario,

Canada, are paid an average of $27 Canadian dollars

per routine office visit. Initial visits that involve

a thorough physical examination are usually billed at

$60 Canadian dollars per visit.

 

Put another way, for routine office visits, medical

doctors here in Ontario have no financial motivation

to take their time and consider their patients' food

and lifestyle choices.

 

If a patient comes in with a chief complaint of a

chronic headache, the doctor could spend an hour

gathering critical information on a patient's diet and

lifestyle, and then go on to address any changes that

could be made to address the chronic headache.

 

Alternatively, the doctor could spend five minutes

going through the motions - pulse, blood pressure,

pupillary reflexes, and other quick screening measures

to make the patient feel like he or she has been

adequately examined by an expert - and then write out

a prescription for a pain killer.

 

Either way, the doctor gets paid $27.

 

So which route do you think most doctors take?

 

There's another reason why many doctors have a

tendency to deal with most cases with a prescription

for a drug: the pharmaceutical industry makes it well

worth their while to do so.

 

Here's how a pharmaceutical sales representative

recently summarized his work for me:

" I take the doctor out to dinner at a fancy

restaurant, all expenses paid. As dinner winds down, I

ask the doctor to recommend my company's brand for

certain health conditions among his patients.

Sometimes, the doctor will say that his office needs

new equipment. I say how much? The doctor says $5,000.

I say fine, but only if you write 100 scripts

(prescriptions) for a specific drug made by our

company each month. The doctor agrees, and we get him

his new $5,000 machine. "

 

Out of curiosity, I asked the pharmaceutical sales rep

how he and his company can be sure that the doctor

will follow through on his word to write out 100

prescriptions of their drug each month. Can't the

doctor just take his $5,000 machine and not follow

through on his promise?

 

" No, all pharmaceutical companies pay big money to a

huge, global corporation called IMS that tracks this

type of data, " was my friend's instant reply.

 

For a fee, IMS can provide date-specific data to

pharmaceutical companies that breaks down exactly how

many prescriptions of each drug that each licensed

doctor has handed out and how many of them have been

fulfilled at licensed pharmacies.

 

In other words, the managers who work for

pharmaceutical companies who approve $5,000 gifts have

a sure-fire way of verifying that their gifts have

been properly reciprocated.

 

And I think that we can all safely assume that this

regular exchange of gifts does not amount to a net

profit of zero dollars for the pharmaceutical

industry. Just in case you don't want to make this

assumption, consider that the IMS reports that in

2005, global pharmaceutical sales amounted to 602

billion dollars; mucho dinero, n'est pas?

 

So let's pretend for a moment that you're a doctor who

now has to write 100 prescriptions per month for a

specific drug that helps to regulate blood glucose.

 

When a patient walks into your office and shows a mild

to moderately elevated fasting blood glucose level,

would you take a half hour to an hour to explain what

he or she can do with food and lifestyle choices to

have a great shot at lowering blood glucose to a

healthy level? Or would you write a quick prescription

for a blood glucose-regulating drug to bring your

target for the month down to 99 prescriptions?

 

This is one of the most powerful ways in which big

pharmaceutical companies have helped to create a sick

health care system; they provide strong financial

incentives for doctors to choose drugs over health

education for patients.

 

The bottom line: putting your health entirely in

another person's hands, namely, your doctor's, is

never as good a choice as learning how to be your own

best doctor.

 

Learn how to choose nutrient-dense foods.

 

Learn about the critical roles that fresh air, clean

water, some exposure to sunlight, physical activity,

and proper physical and emotional rest play in

determining your health state.

 

Learn how negative emotions can cause physical damage

to your cells.

 

Most importantly, apply all of this knowledge to your

everyday life as soon as possible; be your own best

doctor.

 

http://drbenkim.com/articles/sick-health-care-system.htm