The Illness of Medicine

Experiences of Clinical Practice

The book examines and reviews how one experiences medical treatment from both sides of the table. The significant obstacles patients endure, as well as the exasperation many of the truly dedicated medical professionals feel, has been assessed. The controlling arrogance of the insurance industry and the clout pharmaceutical companies have over us have just become overwhelming. Dr. Young recalls a time in his 30-year medical practice when these industries worked with, and for, us. Today, they appear to be the opposition. Patients have essentially no control and doctors have lost the ability to direct their own profession. Profit-driven corporations dictate how our care is now governed. This is an undeniable problem. We are all frustrated with how we are so restricted, so vulnerable as we struggle to navigate through our health care system. Most painful is how we are treated by the medical system itself. Absent today is the sense of concern and empathy we used to associate with the medical profession. We yearn to be treated with compassion; to have trust and confidence in those engaged in taking care of us. Unfortunately, medicine has become a mechanism of profit. It has become a business whose own bureaucratic tendencies have spread like a powerful, aggressive disease.