Summary
Senator Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) claimed that “70 percent” of health outcomes depend on individual choices, blaming Americans for poor health while Republicans plan to cut healthcare protections.
Marshall, a former OBGYN and leader of the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Caucus, emphasizes nutrition and preventative care but ignores systemic issues like poverty and racism.
Proposals from the Trump administration and GOP Congress may weaken Affordable Care Act (ACA) protections, reduce access to care, and increase uninsured rates.
Marshall has also supported physician-owned hospitals, benefiting financially from the industry.
People need to understand that there is nothing universal about doctors. Many are great people who genuinely want to help people. Like anywhere else in life that involves people, there is a slice of doctors who are assholes. Within that slice, you find the the doctors who don’t like what they do and find something else lucrative like CEO or Senator. Marshall is one of those guys. These doctors and former doctors won’t hesitate to use their former title to try to look better though.
Yes, what he says, can be true. Patients will often and wantonly ignore advice to diet and exercise to lose weight. Diabetics will ignore the rules of being diabetic and end up in a coma in ICU. And hold my beer injuries absolutely do happen. But again, it’s a slice, not 70%. Many people do what their doctor advises. Many people will put in the work. Some of them, failing at diet, will get a gastric sleeve or gastric bypass, that works too. And many diabetics manage their disease, including type 2 diabetics who work hard to lose weight to send their toe 2 diabetes into remission. And so on.
Marshal sounds like a real jerk.
And also, the idea of “choice” is bullshit anyway. People who don’t comply with their doctor’s recommendations generally have reasons for doing so, such as depression, insecurity, and horrible side-effects to medication. Good healthcare finds and addresses those reasons instead of just blaming people for being affected by them.
Depends. People are messy. What you say is true. Sometimes education or a lack thereof is at fault. Sometimes doctors are too educated to explain the issue in a way that a person who doesn’t enjoy textbooks, but has common sense, can understand.
But nothing that involves people is 100%. There is a slice who don’t want to be uncomfortable and therefore will not engage with the recommended healthcare.
You mean I have to stay in a hospital where they interrupt my sleep every 4hrs to monitor my condition which is bad enough to require a hospital stay? No.
You mean I have to wait 3 months to see the specialist my PCP recommended for my problem to be eased or fixed? No, I’m going to the Emergency Room. They have doctors, therefore they can fix it. Not quite. Emergency Room declared me stable and offered me Tylenol, assholes, no one will help me. Crumples up discharge paperwork and throws it away. Spoiler: paperwork contains referral to needed specialist to fix problem, possibly even with a sooner appointment.
We are people. As such we really do exercise impatience and refusal to engage uncomfortable things on occasion. There’s no this is 100% not happening. There’s also no this is happening 70% of the time.