> "The image of the physician as somebody who is there to help relieve suffering is cemented as a meme, but the way the system seems to have evolved in the past

> "The image of the physician as somebody who is there to help relieve suffering is cemented as a meme, but the way the system seems to have evolved in the past few decades is towards help as a secondary duty if any." To be fair, with spinal fusions in particular, when a review panel says surgery is "not medically necessary" they're recommending daily pain/numbness/loss of range of motion is better treated with narcotics/steroids/etc. So it's hardly as simple as "doctors ignoring pain for profit". It can quite easily be "insurance company ignoring pain for profit". You simply can't ignore the role of insurance companies. Their disincentivize to approve any treatment, necessary or not, to mitigate their own costs is also a well-studied problem.