Medical Doctors Share The 3 Things They’d Change About The Healthcare System If They Had The Power
There are many things in the industry that desperately need to change.
Stokkete | Shutterstock.com Following the pandemic, less than half of doctors in the medical field are happy in their profession — a huge decline from the reported 75% in early 2020.
While the job can provide financial stability, there are some things about the healthcare system as a whole that need reworking and doctors have frontline experience when it comes to what needs changed.
Medical doctors at a practice group in Florida shared 3 things they would change about the healthcare system if they could:
Some of the doctors at the Orthopedic Specialists group in Palm Harbor, Florida, took to TikTok to share what they would change about the U.S. healthcare system if they had the power.
Issues related to insurance, patient collaboration, and the cost of care were highlighted as barriers to providing the best possible care to patients, and for doctors who entered the profession to help, it can get frustrating.
1. Remove insurance companies from the decision-making process
Over 80% of doctors argue that insurance companies impact their ability to provide fast, quality, and helpful care to their patients — from impeding treatment to even denying coverage completely.
“A lot of the decision-making is done by insurance companies,” Dr. Beatty on TikTok explained.
“Physicians that are paid by insurance companies from afar… are making the decision to approve procedures and services on patients I’m treating.”
Gabriella Csapo | Canva Pro
Others argue they’d remove insurance companies completely from the process, replacing financial assistance with a more comprehensive, accessible, and reasonable solution to better support patient health from all angles.
“It gets in the way of me being a real doctor and doing what I think is right for the patient,” Dr. Brotherton, another doctor in the group, added. “It’s a very frustrating thing when all I want to do is take care of someone.”
2. Refocus on ‘preventative’ care rather than ‘reactionary’ care
Largely impacted by the accessibility of insurance, preventative care is what stops people from getting sick in the first place.
From teaching young kids about nutrition, prioritizing yearly check-ups, and getting regular scans and screenings, this kind of care is meant to treat the patient prior to getting sick.
Our medical system is largely focused on mediating the problem on an individual basis rather than solving the root cause of the issue. While preventative medicine is being practiced and recommended by many doctors today, the truth is that it’s a financial impossibility for many people.
Almost 8% of the nation was medically uninsured in 2023, with 61% of patients skipping out on medical care altogether because of financial barriers. One in five adults with insurance even reported skipping medical care because of high copay costs, lacking transportation to offices, and not being established with primary care physicians.
Sadly, financial status dictates the quality and accessibility of healthcare.
3. Eliminate corporate medicine and return to a more people-first approach to treatment
“I feel like a lot of groups have lost a little bit of the personality and touch that we used to have 30 years ago,” Dr. Taylor from the video explained. “There's a lot of administrators and not enough doctors hands-on.”
A corporate healthcare system ultimately hinders the genuineness of doctors in their healing journeys with patients. Not only does it spark moral injury and burnout in more than a third of medical doctors, it keeps them from being able to think solely about the patient.
People Images Yuri A | Shutterstock.com
“The increasingly complex web of providers’ highly conflicted allegiances — to patients, to self, and to employers… may be driving the healthcare system to a tipping point,” STAT medical reporters Talbot and Dean argue.
Especially for professionals who entered the healthcare industry fueled by a desire to simply help people, this corporate focus — driven by money and profiting off of patients’ illnesses — can be impossible to navigate and have “profound” consequences on a doctor’s health and well-being.
At the end of the day, doctors have to focus on much more than simply treating patients. They’re also forced to consider the financial status of the patient, insurance companies, their practice, and even entire hospitals and healthcare systems.
Zayda Slabbekoorn is a staff writer with a bachelor’s degree in social relations & policy and gender studies who focuses on psychology, relationships, self-help, and human interest stories.