The medical profession is cripplingly dependent on trust. Decreased faith in the goodwill of medical practitioners may lead to people not doing things that have major impacts non overall public health, like getting immunizations.
I'd expect a potential rise in suicide rates due to mental problems becoming more prevalent; if not because of escalating paranoia due to "don't get hurt, you can't afford the medical costs", then due to the over-time integration of the assumption of not having any societal value assigned to some injury being fixed. I think this is an oft overlooked aspect of the social experience of having a problem. There are many who look at people with medical issues that are dismissive that it must somehow be all that person's own fault. While the argument can be made in some cases, in the case where you can't afford medical treatment, the message is sent that your (the injured party's) suffering doesn't matter at a social level unless somehow you can demonstrate you can produce X amount of worth where that worth becomes at least strongly correlated to some significant fraction of whatever the Medical Industrial Complex decides.
It is funny, because I'm reminded of the story Erehwon, where physical ailment vs. Social ailment was flipped around in how it was handled. If you had a chest congestion, you'd be locked away in a prison, away from everyone else, but moral failings like stealing things were not crimes, but things treated as being in need of slight adjustment. The argument put forth against "Doctoring/Medicine" in the story is that eventually, a medical Doctor would accrue too much power over too many people's lives. It seemed ridiculous to meat the time; but as I look at what we have now, I see echoes of it.
If you can't afford to exist in the system, you are cast aside. Can you receive treatment? Yes. Will you financially weather that storm without the advantages of full-time representation, negotiation, and legal counsel? No.
"First, do no harm" means something; and harm comes in many forms nowadays. I know not where the capacity for ruinous financial inflation is being introduced; the exorbitant costs of medical schooling, the production and certification of medical equipment/research, administrative overhead and profit skimming; but it needs to be addressed and evaluated at each point.
Prescription drugs are a start, but the entire infrastructure needs an audit and readjustment in my opinion to bring it back within some semblance of sane operating parameters.
The medical profession is cripplingly dependent on trust. Decreased faith in the goodwill of medical practitioners may lead to people not doing things that have major impacts non overall public health, like getting immunizations.
I'd expect a potential rise in suicide rates due to mental problems becoming more prevalent; if not because of escalating paranoia due to "don't get hurt, you can't afford the medical costs", then due to the over-time integration of the assumption of not having any societal value assigned to some injury being fixed. I think this is an oft overlooked aspect of the social experience of having a problem. There are many who look at people with medical issues that are dismissive that it must somehow be all that person's own fault. While the argument can be made in some cases, in the case where you can't afford medical treatment, the message is sent that your (the injured party's) suffering doesn't matter at a social level unless somehow you can demonstrate you can produce X amount of worth where that worth becomes at least strongly correlated to some significant fraction of whatever the Medical Industrial Complex decides.
It is funny, because I'm reminded of the story Erehwon, where physical ailment vs. Social ailment was flipped around in how it was handled. If you had a chest congestion, you'd be locked away in a prison, away from everyone else, but moral failings like stealing things were not crimes, but things treated as being in need of slight adjustment. The argument put forth against "Doctoring/Medicine" in the story is that eventually, a medical Doctor would accrue too much power over too many people's lives. It seemed ridiculous to meat the time; but as I look at what we have now, I see echoes of it.
If you can't afford to exist in the system, you are cast aside. Can you receive treatment? Yes. Will you financially weather that storm without the advantages of full-time representation, negotiation, and legal counsel? No.
"First, do no harm" means something; and harm comes in many forms nowadays. I know not where the capacity for ruinous financial inflation is being introduced; the exorbitant costs of medical schooling, the production and certification of medical equipment/research, administrative overhead and profit skimming; but it needs to be addressed and evaluated at each point.
Prescription drugs are a start, but the entire infrastructure needs an audit and readjustment in my opinion to bring it back within some semblance of sane operating parameters.