Thursday Threesome

(Link at left)
Why?

1. Why do you think western medicine sucks so bad? From the insurance companies to mis-diagnosis to being shifted from doctor to doctor until they figure out what's wrong with you? Do you think it might be worse in the US than in other countries? Why/why not?

Uhm, western medicine has saved my ass too many times to agree with the basic sentiment here. I don't think western medicine sucks. I think we westerners (i.e. Americans) expect everything to be a walk in the park, and when it isn't we get all whiny and stupid. Life is hard, people. Illness happens. As Beast frequently says, "Why do you think doctors call what they do 'practice'?" Sometimes they're wrong about things. Sometimes they're stupid, too, and for that they should be held accountable, but accidents happen. Sometimes doctors prescribe something that (nearly) kills you, for no reason other than to see if that med works on a cold. That's stupid, and it pissed off my parents enough to be part of a class action lawsuit on behalf of my sister, but they didn't so much fault the doctor as the pharmaceutical business (ahem--another industry quite capable of wearing both black and white hats). That drug is now used to treat yellow fever, incidentally, and only as a last resort.

Having said all that, I think the health delivery system in the U.S. needs a great deal of fine-tuning. The fact that insurance companies are running treatment- and care-options is ridiculous. However, I have relatives in England who are less than excited about the same thing, except that it's the government not insurance companies making these same decisions. Heard of Medicare? The hoops we are jumping through for my mom are bizarre.

It would just be nice if individuals would belly up to the responsibility bar and realize that they can't have it both ways. Sometimes it's cancer and it's good that they removed all the tissue touching the tumor...and sometimes it was a benign tumor and they didn't need to remove all the surrounding organs after all. Suing won't bring it back.

Rant over.

2. For those of us not growing up in Beaver's house, why do we fear we're going to turn into our parents? How do we not do that?

Hmm, I guess I grew up in Beaver's house. I have gone a long way toward turning into my parents. That's not necessarily a bad thing in my case. I'm more worried about my treatment of, behavior toward, and relationship with my (nearly) grown child at this point.

3. Why do you think we as a civilization can't seem to get along with one another?

Because we talk more than we listen, we lack empathy, and we're way too interested in flashy stuff instead of commonplace courtesy. And a lot of other reasons.