The Health Care Racket...

A brief rant about health care...

My wife, Stephanie, called me up at work the other afternoon, an hour before I was going to go home. I could hear my daughter crying in the background.

Stephanie told me she thought Annabelle had an ear infection. She'd been cranky all afternoon. Stephanie said she was going to go to the doctor's office for a 5:30 appointment.

So she went to the doctor. The doctor peeked in Annabelle's ear and confirmed what Stephanie was already 99% sure of: Annabelle had an ear infection. Cost: I'm not sure yet, but probably $50 or more for less than 10 minutes work.

Then the doctor writes a prescription. Stephanie goes to the pharmacy at King Soopers and pays $50 for it.

The part that angers me is how the doctor is the gatekeeper to the pharmacy. Why can't we self-diagnose for minor illness? It's easy enough to identify an ear infection... don't have to be a doctor for that.

Comments

[Amy]

Ryan, you can self-diagnose ear infection. EarPain.com sells a great earscope and book so you can see your kids' ears yourself. I've been using one for 6 years or more. Also, very few ear infections need antibiotics—in most cases antibiotics will only make ear infections worse, at least in the long run. I've never given a kid antibiotics for ear infections.

You might not be ready for this one—but you don't need a doctor to be pregnant or have a baby either. Unassisted Home Birth or Unassisted Childbirth, but I especially love Christian UC.

[Ryan Healy]

Thanks for the links, Amy! I'm with you on the birth thing... if you can convince my wife, I'd be grateful. :-) Only four weeks to go until "junior" arrives.

Ryan

[Amy]

Go subscribe to [email protected] and as soon as you get on, look in the archives for post #2576 (link to my birth video, you can let DW watch it and skip it if you don't want to see me in the flesh ...and I do mean flesh LOL) and post #2551, the post by a MAN about his wife and her UC birth. He had to convince her. If you check out the websites I gave, you can see some real statistics about attended vs unattended births. Going to a hospital today, you have a 90% chance of a surgical birth (30% c-section risk at most hospitals, national average is over 27%.... and the rest of the 90% statistic includes episiotomy, forceps, and other surgical procedures done in a "natural" birth)