Dr. Joshua John-Ram Schacter argues that low insurance reimbursements force doctors to see 30 patients a day, leaving no time for real diagnosis. The system incentivizes quick drug fixes over actual care. He calls on patients to take ownership of their health instead of waiting months for appointments.
How much is a healthy life? How much are those extra years actually worth.
Letting go of some of that fear and giving ourselves permission to learn new things? And that's tough as a physician, especially when you're overwhelmed. In the current insurance system, you got to see your 30 patients a day. The local primary care doctors here in Wichita Falls, Texas, are often one year out for a new patient. So they're so busy taking care of this traditional system where they're getting decreased reimbursement for every patient, they're constantly getting cut back. They have to see more and more people. And the result is somebody comes in, if they don't have a pill to fix it right then, then they try a pill anyway because they don't have another option. I'm not going to look more deeply into this because I'm stuck in the mode of I've got to move on to the next patient in 10 minutes. I've got time to give you an SSRI. You have X. This might work. It probably won't come and see me again in six months. That's our problem. We need to take a beat and take a step and look at, you know, how much is a healthy life? How much are those extra years actually worth? And the patient has to take ownership of this.
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