A Harvard study that was published in the October issue of the NEJM, documented that Americans are considerably less trusting of the medical profession compared to people in most other industrialized countries. Low income Americans are the worst hit and are three times less likely to skip doctor visits, fill prescriptions, or obtain tests, treatment, and follow up care.
All industrialized countries offer universal health care. We rank tied for 34th with Croatia when it came to trust in the medical profession! Yet we spend 2-3 times as much on health care than any other country. The reason for this is that the commercialization of health care is much greater in the US.
Until practicing good medicine becomes more important that making profits from it, this situation will continue unabated. There is a fatal fundamentalism that includes medicine, business, law, religion, sport etc. that is oriented to profits rather than service.
