Can Doctors Regain The Public’s Trust?

Can Doctors Regain The Public's Trust?Deane Waldman, M.D. – People no longer trust their doctors. In addition to survey evidence, there is increasing violence against healthcare workers, worsening burnout of doctors and nurses, and accelerating erosion of the caregiving workforce.

Restoring trust starts with determining why it was lost. There are at least seven reasons: lack of choice (loss of freedom), affordability, depersonalization, accessibility, outcomes, CoViD, and system frustration. Only by fixing the root causes might people’s faith in their physicians be restored. Continue reading

How Health Care Works in America, and Why It’s So Bad

Keith Jackson, MD – We all know in our hearts that a well functioning society should reward intelligence and hard work.  This runs counter to the thinking of those who consider this concept aggressively hurtful to the stupid and lazy, but it is something we know should be true. Merit should matter.  Similarly, we know that well functioning medical care should reward good care of the sick and the intelligent pursuit of seeking even better outcomes.  Many things are working against merit-based reward in health care, however.

Capitalistic principles should help reward the best medical practitioners.  After all, in the archetypical example, if you make the best basket, I’m more likely to part with my best pelt in trade.  Merit is rewarded most reasonably with the capitalistic model.  If the doctor is known to provide the best care, he will be the most financially successful. Continue reading