[vhawk01]

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You're correct that I have contempt for the profession.

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Why?

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Medicine charges outrageous amounts for treatments that don't really do anything. We spend more and more money every year on healthcare, but we don't get any healthier. People get risky 10k gastric bypass surgery when they just need to eat less, or even riskier 100k triple bypass surgery -- that does nothing to improve a patient's life expectency -- when they just need to eat oatmeal and spinach. Type 2 diabetes is an epidemic, even though it is completly preventable, and even reversable through diet and excercise. The number three cause of death in the US is "Death by Medicine" (nosicomical infection+bad drug reactions+medical errors). You get the idea.

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That seems like a really good reason to hate lazy people, but not a good reason at all to hate doctors. We don't really provide as many treatments that "don't really do anything" as you think, though it might appear that way. Thats because a lot of what we do is aimed at keeping people running in place, wherase without treatment they would spiral downward.

I'm fully on board with your emphasis on preventive over reactive care, however. We're moving there, its taking longer than it should, and we are nowhere near the goal yet.