ATS what is your opinion on the healthcare system in America? Be painfully honest.

reply to post by RedBird


I definitely agree, paying for medication is a crime against humanity, especially in America, where each patient is treated as a tool for money gain rather than their own well being. Thank you for your story, just reading about everyone's stories is really opening up my mind about what must be done here in America. I go to school here in St. Maarten and I went to the hospital a few times to get treated, and I think my medications came out to 20 dollars maximum. It was great, I would love to see something like that being implemented in America.

Originally posted by Unvarnished
Hello all! I am a second year medical student and I was just wondering what everyone's point of view on the healthcare system is here in America? I would tell you all that I disagree with these pharmaceutical companies making drugs unaffordable to the point where people end up in a situation where they have to pay to live. I am really looking forward to everyone's responses. I hope all is well!

So long as health care in America is "for profit" those who need it most will be denied. The only entity that can provide for all is the government because it is not "for profit". The public option which was at the core of so called Obama Care stands in opposition to "for profit" and this is why so much is being made of repealing it. The force behind this opposition is, of course, big pharma and big insurance. They have too much to lose, place themselves in positions of more importance than those they serve and, most of all, they serve two masters at the same time. Profit is the more important of these two and the lesser, the people, will pay in denials of coverage whenever the first demands it.

I, and far too many others in this country, are sick and tired of having our lives run by insurance companies. Who speaks for freedom? Who advocates choice? The champions of the insurance companies do. How can this be when my choice is to have government provided medical coverage for less than a third of the cost of private insurance? Do I have choice or not? My choice is for the strangle hold of insurance companies to be broken.

As for big pharma all I can say is that they are so good at presenting us with a new disease and the cure for it in the very same 45 second commercial spot. How good they are at this. How seductive. How convincing. How self serving.

Marketing is the juice that lubricates America. As long as this is true we the people will come up wanting. The people would overwhelmingly choose a European state plan and the insurance companies know it very well. This is what everyone needs though.

You will perhaps be exposed to for profit health care before long. Please take the trouble to find out about how health care is administered in other countries as well.

Thanks for asking.

reply to post by trailertrash


I absolutely will, hopefully out of medical school I am going to try to advocate for a change in this system, because the government has put a lock down on all doctors here in America. They use us practitioners as tools for their own gains and means. It is pathetic and saddening. I will do my best. Thank you so much.

reply to post by muse7


The sad part is that is equivalent to about almost 90 dollars per stitch. Ah man, it is sad that majority of medical care, such as stitching can actually be learned at home. Man, the government really knows how to suck money off of people! The system in America sucks terribly.

reply to post by Infrasilent


And that is the problem with interest in America. The more you cannot pay, the more they charge you, which ultimately ends in a vicious cycle.

Originally posted by Unvarnished
Hello all! I am a second year medical student and I was just wondering what everyone's point of view on the healthcare system is here in America? I would tell you all that I disagree with these pharmaceutical companies making drugs unaffordable to the point where people end up in a situation where they have to pay to live. I am really looking forward to everyone's responses. I hope all is well!

The sad thing is that in your quest to gain honor and knowledge as a minister to the ill, you are being indoctrinated into the largest and most corrupt racket in history.

Many of your textbooks, much of the content and those who profess to teach have been bought and paid for by the same pharmaceutical companies you have already come to mistrust. Please, for your salvation and that of the human beings you endeavor to heal, maintain your skepticism and lack of trust of those companies. For many of them care nothing of cures but chronic illness.

Cancer could have been cured decades ago. Rather than reading about it in the history books however, it has become one of the most profitable businesses in the world. For what other product would a rich man trade his entire fortune than the treatment of this scourge.

Entire industries have developed around cancer. From the healthcare providers, to the manufacturers of equipment and chemicals to those fundraising factories such as the "Find a Cure" philanthropy, hundreds of BILLIONS go into it.

The day is coming that light shall be shed upon this evil practice and God help those bastards who profit.

How come health care costs in the US are never considered the giant redistribution of wealth that they are?
I work 50+ hours a week and can't afford health care due to a pre-existing condition( couple of back surgeries)
They wanted 1200 a month to cover me.
It's a crime that people in this country go bankrupt and loose everything because they were sick or had a condition that required surgery
I haven't see a doctor in 6 years.
It's supplements and whole foods ( not the grocery store) that have kept me alive.
How much money is filtered straight to the top when Americans are sick?
It was pure luck that I didn't go bankrupt and loose everything because of my spine.
It was only because my ex-wife had insurance when I needed those surgeries.
As soon as we split up,I of course lost my ability to get medical care.
That is redistribution of wealth.

reply to post by zarp3333


Thank you for your insight my friend, and I would have to say, you are right. Just the other day we finished reviewing how HIV works and it dawned upon me of how there is no cure to the disease yet. It is actually a very simple virus, and one man was even cured by it with a bone marrow transplant.

reply to post by sealing


I mentioned in one of my earlier posts that good diet and exercise is great for preventing a majority of illnesses, unless it is an infection or a genetic problem. I am glad to hear you are doing well, keep up the good work!

reply to post by Unvarnished


This to everyone here on ATS, thank you so much for contributing to my thread, I have never had a thread that made it to the hot active topics list. I wish you all a great day and thank you for your hard work!

My opinion... our health care system is hands down the absolute best on the planet. Is it perfect? Of course not, because it was created and is administered by humans and humans aren't perfect. Health care is best administered by the private sector. Health care is not a right. To say that it is a right is to say that a doctor is obligated to serve you even if you can't pay for it. That train of thought doesn't apply to any other industry, so then why do some wish to apply it to health care?

reply to post by Unvarnished


Thank you Unvarnished. You are exactly right.
Diet and exercise are everything when you don't have medical care. (and even when u do)
It has made a huge difference in my body and with my depression issues.
Thanks again for this thread.

reply to post by Unvarnished


While back I had a girl friend, single, very well educated.

She was a sales rep for Pfeiffer Pharmaceuticals Company - had the big hospital/doctor accounts.

She was able to buy a home "In the Canyon" (where many of the Hollywood movie stars live) in California.

All on her own, no husband, no boyfriend, no rich daddy........................X made big bucks, and I mean big bucks. She had "stuff" you and most of us couldn't even begin to afford.

Her house at the time she bought it cost millions of dollars.

Big Pharma is one of the biggest lobbyists in DC, that's why a certain easy to grow miracle weed that cannot be named here on ATS is not allowed to be legalized or grown.

They say there is a cure for cancer, they say that big pharma is making us sicker not healthier. If you cure someone, you don't own them anymore..........there are big bucks in making and keeping people sick.

Funny how diabetics has increased?

That in and of itself, if explored, could make for a whole new conspiracy thread.

Everyone deserves free, good medical care.

With the blood money we have spent in Iraq we could have given every single man woman and child good health care coverage.

Instead we choose as a nation to keep handing over our hard earned money to fund the military and not medical and social health services.

A nation hell bent on war vs taking humane care of all it's citizens is doomed.

We need a good health care system for everyone.

Particularly....................MAINLY AND FIRST, FOREMOST for ALL CHILDREN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No child should go to bed hungry, wet, cold, sick or abused. NONE.

This should in my opinion also cover free and extensive, confidential birth control for all women of child bearing age.

Hospitals charging $5.00 for a .2 cent aspirin is ridiculous.

reply to post by OptimusSubprime


The planet will continue to degenerate until more people become service to others vs self service.

Good medical care should be available to all.

We pour tens of trillions into war and hardly anything into education, social services or medical.

People should be more important than profit.

I am a third-year medical student, and my opinion is from an outside point of view since I am not from the US, so take it with a grain of salt. I consider the US system to be quite inefficient when contrasted with huge amount of money they spend on healthcare, both in absolute and relative terms. And the fact that people end up in debt over what can be considered essential treatment is a rarity among first world countries, and quite absurd, IMHO.

I think anyone who says this system works, has never been sick in this system.

A very prosper industry, with more and more costumers constantly created by other branches of the same corporation, like food industry and FDA.

Originally posted by Unvarnished
Hello all! I am a second year medical student and I was just wondering what everyone's point of view on the healthcare system is here in America? I would tell you all that I disagree with these pharmaceutical companies making drugs unaffordable to the point where people end up in a situation where they have to pay to live. I am really looking forward to everyone's responses. I hope all is well!

I'll sum it up by asking you a question or two.
In us all knowing, surely including yourself, that you incur a HUUUUUGE debt in becoming a Rockefeller modern medicine Dr. I ask you to honestly answer this.
If you knew there were very cheap natural methods and materials commonly found in nature that treated illnesses at it's core, not the symptoms that all these very expensive pharmaceutical drugs address.
Would you prescribe these if they only cost the patient pennies a day and they provided their own bodies immune systems the ability to heal knowing it would not make you very much money as you and the mega-international pharma and establishment would lose all their life long clients?
Could you do this knowing all the debt and time you spent becoming a Dr.? Or would the money counter this?
Would you support things like sea algaes (chlorela, kelp, spirulina, etc...) beehive products (bee pollen, royal jelly, propolis, honey), mono-sacharrides found abundant in fruits and veggies that are vine ripened (as opposed to di-sacharrides), ph balancers (baking soda), and many many other cheap and abundant natural and non evasive, non-toxic materials that work hand in hand with the bodies natural ability to heal and a functioning immune system?

Or is paying for your 12 years of school loans and internship, your main house, vacation home, 6 cars, your mistresses car and her condo, etc skewer your willingness to promote these?
Just curious.
My favorite Doc to date would probably be Dr Robert Mendehlson. He has a good book or two on the subject.
www.natural-cancer-cures.com...

Originally posted by nixie_nox
I think anyone who says this system works, has never been sick in this system.

Works/worked for me.


Suffered a massive heart attack 7 years ago. According to ER doctor, I was about 15 minutes from dead.

Total out of pocket cost for ER trauma care/emergency angioplasty/and 3 days' stay for recovery and observation: $25USD.


Fell and broke my hip 4 months ago ("Help! I've fallen and I can't get up! moment). EMT services/ambulance ride to ER/ER trauma care/Surgery to repair and stabilize the break/3 days in the hospital to recover/10 days in a continuing care facility/ twice weekly visits by physical therapist, occupatioal therapist and home care nurse for 2 more months: $25USD

Yes, I still have to pay about $50 @ month for the 8 or 9 medications I have to take for my heart and other conditions;but that's just $50 a month, Total. And the prescriptions are delivered to my door once every 3 months when I order them.

And yes, I still have to pay $15 per visit to see my doctor as a co-pay (although I've been getting weekly vitamin shots for the past month for free)

And yes, my employer pays about $500 a month in medical insurance premiums for my care.

But that was all a part of the benefit package my union was able to negotiate with my employer.


Maybe those folks who claim unions are the s***t of the Earth, might want to organize themselves and join up.

There's strength in numbers as they say.

Thank you for your kind reply. :-)

Another thing to add after reading some responses:

Seems a large problem is that it 'cost a lot to treat cancer, to treat AIDS, to treat diabetes...etc'. The problem is TREAT. If they would look for the source of the problem and tend to that, instead of treating the symptoms, there would be a lot more healthy folks and a lot less money going to BigPharma.

For example, if one has cancer, find out WHY? HOW? WHAT's contributing and then change it. Don't just try and 'kill' the cancer and keep doing the same ol' thing.

It's like having a big hole in the roof of your house and every time it rains, your living room floods. Instead of fixing the hole you merely clean the water up every time and put a bucket down to catch what you can. Seems a bit ridiculous, no?

I could list tons of examples here... but I won't. :-)

I don't think people that don't care enough about themselves to take an active roll in their life should be allowed a 'better quality of life' via pills and operations (when there is clearly another way- al biet more of a task).

If you develop diabetes because you are lazy and rapidly gaining weight, why should you be able to continue to do the same ol' thing and expect a magic pill?

I guess what I'm saying (this time) is that western medicine caters to the lazy.

Overweight? Take a pill.

Got a headache? Take a pill.

Feeling sad? Take a pill.

The list goes on and on. Of course there are exceptions to the rule, but they are that, exceptions, and few and far between.

If you tell your patients nothing else, try to instill that their body NEVER needs a synthetic substance (pills). All they do is 'treat' the symptom... leaving the cause just gnawing away in safe-haven away from your awareness because of that neat little pill.

I get a bit worked up because so many people think they can't. Can't take care of themselves, can't understand their own bodies, can't fix small problems. All because the doctors tell them they can't.

People may even respond to this saying how horrible they have it. And how they would be dead without western medicine. I believe 100% that following a more holistic and food based approach to anything would make their quality of life a million times better.

If you're lazy, you're lazy. And to make matters worse, everyone (including doctors) are there to tell you it's ok. It's normal. You can't help it.

Edit to add:

I just found this video that seems to sum this up...