--- In [email protected], TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > --- In [email protected], "shanti2218411" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote:
> The right therapy is the right therapy. Sometimes it > involves drugs; sometimes it does not. My concern is > that too many doctors aren't interested enough in the > welfare of their patients to find what the right > therapy is. It would take too much of their time. So > they just write a prescription. I share you concerns. However, given a majority of doctors work for HMOs and have fairly rigid guidelines to follow, I think the issues you raise are not fully on the shoulders of HMO doctors. Or the HMOs. HMOs compete and offer cost-effective services, for the most part, for the fees they are paid. Most HMO subscriptions come from corporate health plans. They pay what they do, trying to stay competitive. Look at the mess GM is in over paying higher than normal health benefits. A problem, not necessarily THE problem, is that people expect optimal health from their corporate HMO health plans, and wrongly vent and blame the doctors for 'short-changed' treatment. When in reality, the doctor, nor the HMO, nor the corporation are fully to blame. Or even substantially to blame. Employees get the level of health benefits per their total compensation contract. Its never optimal. People need to pay extra if they want extra. Its a sad fact. But standard HMO plans are not optimal. They are production line, by the probabilities, health services. If you want more, you need to pay more. > Thanks for being one > of the "other guys," the ones who remind us what medical > science was *supposed* to be like before it turned into > the fast path to a Mercedes and a country club membership. I think HMO doctors, the vast majority these days, feel pinched they can't provide the services they want. They are not money grubbing, Mercedes driving, on the country club course at 3. They are caught in a medical system as distasetful to them as to you. > If my brother had run into someone like that, instead > of some doctor who gave him ten minutes of his time > and then shoved him out of the office with a prescription > for Prozac in his hand, he might still be alive. I am sorry about your bother. I have faced suicide in those close to me and I do empathize. No glibness. And I get your pain. And your venting. And the above, about HMO's may not apply to your brother. personally, I am highly dismissive of doctors private practice and HMOs and their "skills". I have been mis diagnosed bydoctors at top clinics for years. But I get that many are caught in a system they dislike and even hate. Personally I think everyone needs to take a much larger role in personal responsibility for their health -- mental and physical. And do independent research. So much info is available on-line. And pay for extra services, if they feel its warranted above and beyond their health insurance plans. Health takes initiative and individual responsibility. If not pursued, people will get production line medicine. Efficient for the 'whole", sometimes tragic for the individual. This post is not a dis or a pissing contest. I think we are not too far off in our views. Perhaps different vantage points. Again, sorry for your brother. No disrespect meant. To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
