We have all become painfully aware that doctor visits have become outrageously expensive. A quick look at why this has happened won’t help the cost but it will lead to more understanding of the problem and to more anger in the consumer’s emotions. Middlemen is the problem. There are more people in between you and the doctor than ever before. They are non-essential, trouble causing, and very expensive. If you are old enough to remember when doctors used to make house calls then you will have a good perspective on real health care and the criminality that masquerades in its place nowadays. Back in the day, when you were sick, you called a doctor who came to your house with his little black bag and he cured you. The worst part was when he said to "turn over" so you could get a shot in your hindquarters. You paid his bill with cash, check, or chickens, and all stayed well. If there were a really big problem, like a major disease or broken bones, then you went to his office, or a hospital, where you were treated and released as quickly as possible. You paid the bill with cash, check, or chickens, and you convalesced at home (the safest environment).

For some unknown reason, all sorts of busy-bodies (who are incapable of minding their own business) started interfering with the health care process. Now there were no more house calls by doctors. Everyone had to go to the hospital and sit for hours in the waiting room – sometimes dying as a result – until someone came to find out if you had health insurance. No insurance, no care. It had become a money game. If you have lots of money, then you were allowed to get health care. If you were poor, you wait like cattle. This left the door open for other middlemen to step in and say, "oh, these poor souls need help. We will provide insurance so that they can get health care." They lie, of course, because they just take your premiums and then find ways to deny services when you need them the most. How many people are denied life saving operations and procedures because the middlemen want to make more money? Of course, if you "know somebody" on the inside, you can get anything done that you want. Doctors are held hostage just like the patients. For a good expose on this type of criminality, I recommend the movie entitled: "Damaged Care". It gives a good look into the companies that provide faulty coverage for medical procedures.

What can we do?  We can understand that the problem is going to get much worse. The current trend to fixing things in this dysfunctional society is to introduce more middlemen to watch the current middlemen. This, of course, compounds the problems. You can’t fix one problem by adding a second problem. The real answer is to strip away all the problems and to go back to a time that worked. Yes, there were problems then too, but they were little, workable problems. Today we have huge problems that are not workable. The patient, the innocent person who needs a real doctor, is the loser because he or she is lost under tons of imbeciles whose only function is to interfere with health care.