There’s a letter in today’s Globe, from a fellow identifying himself as a doctor, whom The Lion will graciously refer to as Doctor X, or just X. The attitude he expresses suggests why healthcare in America will continue to languish and fall behind healthcare in the rest of the civilized world.
I AM writing with regard to Thursday’s article about CVS’s plans to provide walk-in care for “minor” ailments (“In-store healthcare wins state approval,” Page A1).
CVS wants to open clinics in some of their stores to provide care from a nurse practitioner for minor health complaints. Patients would be charged for the services, either through insurance or paying for themselves. The service is expected to be reasonably fast and efficient.
In my opinion, this will shift to another form of provider the same cadre of patients who abuse the system by using hospitals for primary care.
Now here’s a big key to Doctor X’s mentality and morality. He apparently thinks sick people get up in the morning and decide that since they can’t afford to see a doctor or can’t find a doctor who will see them, they’ll go to the hospital so they can sit in an emergency room for hours with other sick people. They apparently do this just for the sake of abusing the so-called healthcare system. It has nothing to do with being sick or injured and wanting to get well.
This will not save insurance costs. In addition, it will deprive primary care doctors of revenue (another reason fewer people are going into primary care) and enrich only the for- profit sector (CVS).
Ever try to get a primary care doctor to see you if you don’t have insurance and you’re poor or broke? The hospital has to provide care. Doctor Moneybags is under no such legal obligation.
And The Lion would note that Doctor X’s premise suggests that he objects to the CVS project because somebody else is getting the money instead of him. Apparently, according to his thinking, and he’s a doctor, doctors are definitely in it for the money. Why else object to some other provider getting the fee?
Is it any wonder that the United States, for all its vaunted high tech medicine, has one of the poorest records for healthcare in the civilized world?
Grumpy Lion 
The US health care system is pathetic. The deacon and I will be moving to Canada, probably within the next five years. Aside from his family roots there and our love of the country, health care differentials are a driving factor in our plans. I’m not optimistic that the American health care system will ever get fixed. There are too many corporations that have interests in keeping it at its current abysmal level or driving it deeper into the ground.
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Chappy, you are right that there are countless corporations and individuals that have a stake in not fixing our primitive health care system. Still, I have to believe that if you could get all of the others to team up and sacrifice the Insurance Industry, then everyone else will still be able to get their piece of the pie and average Americans will be able to get good and reasonably priced care. I’m not blaming the insurance companies entirely for the mess, but they are a big part of it and just sinking that one ship could win the whole war. Then again, I know its a simplistic fix and a Gordian knot like this one is not easily untangled.
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