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> For many Americans, the doctor shortage has already arrived. More than 100m people today live in an area without enough primary-care doctors (the problem is p
by Eumenes 3y ago
> For many Americans, the doctor shortage has already arrived. More than 100m people today live in an area without enough primary-care doctors (the problem is particularly bad in rural areas). For mental health things are even worse: half of Americans live in an area with a shortage of mental-health professionals.
I agree with many of the points made here (doctors aren't overpaid, schooling is too long, etc) but how about addressing how many people constantly believe they need to see a doctor. How much time in the doctors office is actually necessary? There are probably more hypochondriacs today than ever before and I know many IRL. I've gone to the doctor probably less than 5 times in my adult life, but I have friends my age (late 30s) who go dozens of times per year, and don't have chronic issues! Some people suggesting a single payer system would fix this but I see it the opposite, just like in Canada, our system will be flooded for people seeking care for every single thing.
- firejake308 3y agoI normally frown when people suggest that tech will fix medicine, but I actually believe it for the singular use case of triaging whether or not a problem needs medical attention. The biggest barrier is that the false negative is a very dangerous situation (i.e., telling a patient it can wait when it's actually emergent), so no tech company with a functioing legal department will want to take on that liability. So for now, the second best solution is the "doc-in-a-box"/urgent care outfit that doesn't have all the expensive machines and can therefore charge less, or you can see an NP/PA who can charge less because they have less formal education.