Sunday, October 09, 2005

A noble profession, my @$$

I've always had an interest in biology, but from the start I knew that I did not want to be a doctor. Partly for selfish reasons, coz' most doctors spend so much time working that they don't have much of a social life. And also because I know if I make any screw ups, my whole careers could be over and I would've completely wasted dunno how many donkey years of studying medicine. And also because I wasn't too keen on the stressful life of a med student. But there is another reason why I'd never want to be a doctor, which was brought more home to me yesterday. In the news, there was an article about an Indian guy who died because he didn't have the money to pay for the treatment he needed to get. I don't know all the details, coz' I only read a bit of the article, but it's still enough to piss me off to the max. I mean, medicines are made to treat people and doctors are there to help heal people, yet even though they have the medicines and the doctors available, they allow this guy to die just because he can't pay for them. Effectively demonstrating that in the medical world, if you don't have the money and don't have the insurance, you can just go ahead and die. Why? Why couldn't they treat the guy first and then settle the payments later? How could they sit around waiting for the poor wife to try and round up enough money, knowing full well that her husband needed treatment soon or else he would die? How can any self-respecting doctor do that? I mean, if it's not a life-threatening situation, then fine.....but this guy was dying and now he's dead. To me, it's just a really sick situation. And another thing is that all these treatment cost so much money, and you have to wonder where does all this money go to.... The doctors and the companies who develop the medicines, treatments and equipment. And then you have to wonder, how much of this money actually covers the costs of the medications alone, and how much goes straight into the doctors and company directors' pockets? Well, considering most of them are driving around in big fancy cars and living in ridiculously big houses, the answer to that is a big DUH. Why else do all our Chinese parents want us to become doctors? To make big money lah.... Yes, being a doctor is such a noble profession when they scrounge every possible penny out of people who can't afford it while they are happily playing golf every other weekend. Even more noble it is that they can stand by and allow a poor person to die because he's not paying them the money they need to buy new golf clubs. Ugh, doctors are supposed to be the healers, but it seems to me that they are ones who are sick. Of course, there are the exceptional few who actually DO care more about healing people than making big money... those who are even willing to go to poor countries for free to help others..... and those kind of doctors I applaud. But unfortunately, perhaps there are not enough of those kind of doctors around. And because of that, one poor guy had to pay with his life.
Of course, to be fair, doctors have to work hard to become good doctors, and naturally they do deserve to get well paid. But knowing that some people simply cannot afford medical treatment or insurance, there should be a way to allow all people, rich and poor, to get the same medical treatment and the doctors still get paid the same. I mean, if they can do it in other countries like Australia, why not here? In Aus, every citizen in covered under Medicare, which far as I know, allows everyone equal medical treatment regardless of their financial capabilities. And how on earth can the Aussie doctors survive then? They're paid by the government, using the people's taxes. Australians have to pay higher taxes than here to get such benefits, but at least they are all covered. Here in good ol' Malaysia, no such thing. The best we can do is buy insurance, and even that can be denied to a person if the insurance company learns that he or she is very likely to fall gravely ill or get seriously injured. Oh yeah, the insurers are all out to help us too, just like the doctors.
It's quite sad really, to know that so many people can so easily place more importance on money than over the lives of others. Which is why even though I am qualified to work for pharmaceutical companies, I don't think I could do so without constantly thinking at the back of my mine that these companies care more about the profits than actually helping people. Which means I'd probably be stuck the rest of my life working for pittance at some organization for a good cause like WWF just so I can have a good conscience. Kakakaka! Of course, every organisation has their politics and ulterior motives as well, but that's another story for another time....

1 comment:

Dissociated Mind said...

Well, I don't think it's a problem of the doctors' but rather the medical organization. Maybe health organizations, hospitals, and whatnots need to set up some sorta fund/scheme/whachamacallit to help subsidize and ease these ppl's burdens.