New York Times, March 5th, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/06/health/policy/06doctors.html?src=me&ref=health
Due to the changes in how much insurance will pay, today's psychiatrists can no longer provide talk therapy to their patients. Instead, they are only able to prescribe medication after a brief consultation with each patient. This is just one of the many ways that medicine has drastically changed in the U.S. over the past few decades. At one time, it was a personal, service-based profession that developed a close relationship between caregivers and those who were treated. Today, it is dominated by large hospital group and corporations, coupled with a loss of intimacy between doctor and patient. This loss has most severely affected the psychiatry field. Instead of becoming interested in patient problems and offering therapeutic services, psychiatrists are forced to merely keep patients functional.
The story within this article is telling of a significant issue in the medical field. As the health care field continues to develop, it becomes driven by economic and technological pursuits, losing the core ethics of medicine. Health care has become an industry of competing services and devices - all towards the goal of economic and professional development. Yet, as the medical field becomes fueled by "big business" strategies and techniques, the values that uphold medical aid have disappeared. The importance of a single person, personal issues, developing trust, and ensuring safety and well-being have taken a back seat. Moreover, the community-based, selfless nature of being a doctor is being compromised in order to meet financial requirements, insurance policies, and visitor quotas. Doctors have transformed from personal, faithful healers to mechanized robots that practice in the most efficient, cost-effective way. For better or for worse.
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