I fully support Trump-Vance and Team Kennedy’s concerted effort to make America healthy again. I believe it will not only prevent countless Americans from contracting a chronic illness, but also improve the quality of life for those that already have one.
I believe processed foods, vaccines, and the inherent corruption associated with these things are only part of the problem. A myriad of deficits in America’s healthcare system are another piece of this complex puzzle.
It’s no secret that our nation’s healthcare system is broken and needs to be completely overhauled. I believe that these issues begin at the state level and are perpetuated by the monopolization of local hospitals by one or two major medical systems.
I have outlined major areas of our nation’s healthcare sector that need immediate reform below:
- Hold Doctors Accountable - Doctors should be awarded based upon quality of care, not quantity of patients. Many doctors have become greedy and are more concerned about the amount of patients they see in a day than whether they are actually improving their health.
These same doctors encourage continuous follow-up visits and only offer unnecessary prescription medications as a treatment to their patients. These unneeded medications cause side-effects which require the doctor to prescribe additional medication to counteract them; it becomes a vicious (and costly) cycle. I believe such doctors are merely legal drug dealers, who should be held accountable for their immoral and unlawful acts of patient negligence and insurance fraud.
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Restrict Online Health Record Sharing - Many doctors no longer take the time to do their own examinations because they rely on the findings of previous doctors. Thus, if patients were misdiagnosed by one doctor, it’s difficult to get a fair, objective second-opinion from any future doctors. I propose that the patient is given the ability to permit or deny doctors and hospitals access to these online health records without fear of repercussion of his/her choice. As of now, all that anyone needs to peruse your life story is a Social Security number, regardless of your consent.
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Reform Process for Amending Medical Records - No one knows our own bodies more than ourselves. When we’re not feeling well, we know we’re not feeling well, despite what any doctor or lab result says otherwise. If a patient disagrees with a doctor’s diagnosis, he/she should be afforded the ability to appeal their findings by composing a rebuttal letter or submission of a second opinion that contradicts the previous misdiagnoses.
Additionally, I believe patients shouldn’t have to amend records at every hospital or doctor’s office where they’ve received care. Rather, I believe that there should be a central agency established that objectively reviews such cases and renders a decision based upon the facts presented and issues corrections/amendments of any medical records from all previous doctors and hospitals.
- Deferral Diagnosis - If a doctor is unable to definitively diagnose a patient, he/she should not be able to label it a psychological condition, such as anxiety, depression, somatoform disorder, etc. Rather, the treating doctor, who only uses the diagnosis codes from the aforementioned conditions for insurance purposes, should just simply state that he/she was unable to make a definitive diagnosis and refer the patient to another doctor for a second opinion. There should be an insurance billing code created to cover such instances, rather than using catch-all psychological misdiagnoses to bill insurances for services.
It’s reckless misconduct for a doctor to make such diagnoses without any definitive evidence or a background in psychology to reinforce their claim. Once one medical professional, even a general practitioner, claims his/her patient has psychological symptoms, such as anxiety and depression, any future doctors are prejudiced and many induce that all conditions are caused by these things.
Even if patients go out of state, they can’t get an objective evaluation because these diagnoses are scarlet letters that follow them the rest of their lives because of online medical record sharing. In essence, they’re unfairly labeled and become subject to discrimination and malpractice every time they receive medical care.
I am writing this post as a patient who has fallen through the cracks of our nation’s current healthcare system and experienced all the flaws and shortcomings mentioned above. My intention is to bring awareness to these issues so they can be addressed and corrected, so that no one will ever have to experience the same bias and mistreatment I have endured for over the last 27 years.
If our nation’s healthcare system didn’t fail me so badly, my life would be drastically different than it is today. I would be living the American dream like many of my friends: excelling in a career, owning my own home, married to the woman of my dreams, raising kids, etc. As it is though, I am currently 37 years old, disabled, wheelchair-bound, and dependent on others for my most basic needs, such as eating and bathing.
The greatest tragedy of my story is that all of this could’ve been prevented with early detection and treatment of my disease. However, every new doctor relied on the misdiagnoses of previous doctors and never took the time to objectively evaluate my condition, so it only progressed and worsened over time.
In addition, the negative stigma of the psychological misdiagnoses made me prone to bias and only prolonged my eventual true diagnosis. Thank goodness for doctors who care more about their patient’s well-being than their own self-interests. If not for me finding such a doctor, a previous neurologist, to take the time to properly evaluate, diagnose, and treat me, I would not be writing this letter to you today. Unfortunately, I haven’t had much luck with my medical care since he retired.