Doctor Evils

I am currently suffering through a sinus infection. This has occurred three times in the past four years. The drug I need is azithromycin (a Z-Pak, more colloquially). I was prescribed this for each of my previous sinus infections, and each time it worked wonders. I should be able to walk down to the local medication supplier, give him some money and an insurance card, receive azithromycin, return to health, and get on with my life.

Unfortunately, this is not how it works.

Doctors like money (Who doesn’t?). In order to get more money, they will lobby the government to enact laws that make more of your money float into doctors’ pockets. This is the purpose of big doctor unions like the American Medical Association. They fight against cuts to medicare, against the burgeoning of low-cost supermarket clinics, for caps on malpractice claims, and for exorbitant restrictions on who can practice medicine (the US is well below the OECD average for physicians per capita, despite US physicians’ higher compensation).

Of course, they also lobby the government to ensure that I must see a doctor in order to obtain certain medicines. Even if I know exactly what drug I need. Even if I feel no need to and do not want to see a doctor. The government forces me to go to a doctor’s office, sit in a lobby reading a four-month-old copy of Sports Illustrated, and then pay a doctor for a piece of paper that says I can go buy a drug.

This is one area where I think Ron Paul has it absolutely right. Let’s bust the doctor unions. They lobby the government to legislate my money into doctors’ pockets. Doctors then use a fraction of that money to help elect the politicians who support them. It takes both big government and big business to perpetuate the circlejerk. This is true of most industries, but right now I’m only pissed off at this one.

*Note that there are very good reasons for regulating the use of antibiotics specifically, but that’s largely beside the point.