How a For-Profit Healthcare System Generates Mistrust of Medicine

Conspiracy theories about vaccines and other medical procedures are perhaps the inevitable output of a for-profit healthcare system where people perceive themselves not as patients, but as cash cows. High (and ever-higher) medical costs drive questions about the intentions of healthcare providers, which then spiral outward into full-blown conspiracy theories, a process that Marxist theorist Fredric Jameson describes as logical “slippage” born of the difficulty of articulating the inner workings of the complex systems that characterize late capitalism. And the intricacies of the for-profit healthcare system provide a site ripe for that slippage, in part because the profits of that system are partly contingent on people not understanding its intricacies, so that they can be charged the highest rates for the largest possible number of procedures. (Appelbaum and Batt note that for-profit hospitals have been forced to pay out millions in settlements for unnecessary procedures.)

... the average American is carting around about $90,460 worth of debt, an average of $2,424 medical. That debt explicitly figures into the thought process of many Americans evaluating their medical care options—often as the deciding factor. A 2022 study found that about 2 in 5 Americans had passed on medical care in the last year because of the cost, and that 1 in 4 had skipped a dose of medication, resorted to cutting pills in half, or else passed on refills altogether—an experience shared disproportionately by women, Black and Hispanic adults, low-income people, and the uninsured.

But the insured struggle, too. In 2020, the average monthly cost of health insurance was $456 for individuals and $1,152 for families—and even with insurance, an accident can still come with a price tag in the thousands, because the average annual deductible in 2020 was $4,364 for individuals and $8,439 for families. In 2022, nearly half of insured Americans were worried about their ability to afford that yearly deductible. Hence, it should come as no surprise that Americans commonly skip out on ambulance rides and specialized treatments to cut costs.

Even with the scrimping and saving, an estimated 41 percent of American adults have medical and dental debt, whether owed to the provider, a collections agency, a bank, a line of credit, a family member, or a friend—and 25 percent of American adults say that they are overdue on payments or just can’t pay. Those with large debt burdens report elevated levels of stress—and with elevated levels of stress come physical issues like ulcers, insomnia, back pain, migraines, digestive tract problems, and heightened diastolic blood pressure. These conditions, in turn, require ever more medical intervention, with mounting costs, theoretically until death, at which point your estate takes over. It is understandably hard to trust that such a system has your best interests at heart.

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2023/02/how-a-for-profit-healthcare-system-generates-mistrust-of-medicine