Dr. Brown: The American Medical Problem

By H. Doyle Smith

We have problems in our health care when a significant portion of our GDP is spent on health care, and the price of health care is beyond the ability of anyone to pay because too much money is wasted, and intrinsic systems are creating problems.

• Language: English
• Publisher: EC Publishing LLC
• Release date: Aug 31, 2023
• ISBN: 9781953821546

H. Doyle Smith

Doyle Smith was a member of the medical professional family for twenty-five years from the time he was a hospital controller for Margaret R. Pardee Memorial Hospital in Hendersonville, North Carolina. He is married to a physical therapist. He has been aware of the problems since that time. He grew up in that town but has lived in ten states, worked in twenty-two, and visited all states except Hawaii. A retired CPA, he has been active in many businesses and aware of many more.

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Copyright © 2023 by H Doyle Smith.

ISBN 978-1-953821-54-6 Ebook

ISBN 978-1-953821-53-9 Paperback

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Table of Contents

Doctors Are People

The Problems

The System Has Engulfed a Major Portion of the Gross Domestic Product of American Business

The Historical Basis

All Doctors and Other Personal Service Providers Are Monopolies

Monopoly Pricing

Legal Considerations

Patents

Malpractice Suits

Protocol Medicine

The System Is Designed to Defraud

Cost-Plus Calculation

Anybody Can Bill the System

Medicare Payments Are Used for Other Purposes besides Health Care

Distractions

New Doctors Are Burdened with Student Loans

Research and Development

Quick to Specialize

The Promotion of Health Care Is an Emotional Appeal, Not a Realistic One

Reliance on Fear

Indiscriminate Advertising

Solutions

Mining the System

Farming the System

We Need to Invest in our Health Care Workers

More Bang for the Buck

Difficulties of Research and Development

Legal Problems

Malpractice

Medical Patents

Set Prices

Payment to Licensees Only

Incomplete Claims

Avoid Sidetracking New Physicians

Hospital Independence

Conclusion

Introduction

This is a study of the American medical system. Norway, according to a Facebook post, has labeled this system as underdeveloped.

Studies have shown that you could go to the coast of Spain, have a new knee installed, and spend a week on the beach for less than the same knee surgery in America.

In my own experience, I know that an emergency room visit with twenty-six stitches, a tetanus shot, and pain medicine cost $62 in Berlin, Germany, while nurses in Ohio estimate that the same would cost over $450. How did this happen?

My experience with the medical infrastructure gives some light on how this developed. We need to understand that it is not the people who provide the medical services that have caused the problem, but the system itself.

It has several problems that should be addressed. And there are solutions that will rectify the situation if we have a willingness to deal with these problems instead of bemoaning the difficulties that we face. Each of these statements will be dealt with in this study.

The system has grown through time from an inadequately financed hit-or-miss business to a major part of our economy.

The best way to start is to look at how the system has grown over the last eighty-five years to the situation we find ourselves in today. Since I have been involved in this industry as much as I have, the best way to introduce the subject is to follow my experience in it.

I grew up in a small town in the mountains of North Carolina. We grew our own food, took our corn to the mill, and allowed the miller to keep a portion of that cornmeal