🩺 Cracks in the Cure – Part 3
From Calling to Paycheck
When “Patient First” Turns into “Profit First”
They say “patient first,” but behind the exam room curtain, it’s often “paycheck first.”
And when medicine becomes a business before a mission, care becomes a product.
💬 A Personal Moment: What My 4-Year-Old Taught Me
A few years ago, my daughter was just four.
She was singing that classic nursery rhyme so many kids love:
“Five little monkeys jumping on the bed,
One fell off and bumped his head.
Mama called the doctor and the doctor said…”
But instead of finishing with the usual
“No more monkeys jumping on the bed,”
she paused… and proudly said:
“What kind of insurance do you have?”
I laughed. It was adorable.
But then the weight of her words hit me.
At just four years old, she had already picked up on something deeply unsettling:
In our world, care comes second to coverage.
She wasn’t being taught that in school. She was just watching the grown-ups — watching the system.
That moment stayed with me, because it captured a larger truth:
Even our children know that “patient first” isn’t always true.
Sometimes, it’s insurance first. Payment first. Profit first.
❌ Symptom: Disconnected Doctors, Distrustful Patients
You walk into a clinic, hoping to be heard — but something feels off.
The provider is typing furiously. The visit is short. The follow-up is unclear.
You feel like a number on a chart, not a human in need.
Many healthcare professionals feel it too:
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Overbooked schedules
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Performance quotas
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More billing codes than breathing room
Modern medicine is full of brilliant minds — but it’s slowly losing its heart.
🧠 Root Cause: How the Calling Became a Career
🏫 1. Education as a Transaction
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Medical school is crushingly expensive — sometimes over $200,000 in debt.
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That burden pushes students to chase high-paying specialties, not high-need communities.
🏥 2. Healthcare as a Business
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Hospitals, once places of healing, are run like corporations.
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Executives chase revenue targets, not just recovery rates.
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Insurance companies limit care by approval algorithms.
💸 3. “Success” Measured in Dollars, Not Impact
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Doctors are rewarded for volume, not value.
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Compassion, curiosity, and community service often go unmeasured and unrewarded.
📊 The Hard Truth in Numbers
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In the U.S., the top 10% of specialists earn over $500,000/year while rural areas lack basic primary care.
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Over 60% of patients feel their care is rushed or impersonal.
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More doctors report feeling like “healthcare technicians” than healers.
💡 Treatment Plan: Reclaiming the Meaning of Medicine
We can’t ask doctors to care more unless we also care for them — their purpose, their path, and their peace.
1. Make Medical Education Affordable and Ethical
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Expand scholarships, debt forgiveness, and public service loans
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Teach medical humanities — ethics, empathy, storytelling — as core, not optional
2. Reward Heart-Centered Medicine
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Incentivize time spent listening, educating, and empowering patients
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Measure success through outcomes, not throughput
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Highlight doctors who serve under-resourced communities, not just those who earn the most
3. Redesign the System from Within
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Give clinicians a voice in policy and administration
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Support smaller, community-driven care models
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Empower patients to demand transparency, not just treatment
🌱 Final Thought
Medicine was never meant to be a ladder — it was meant to be a light.
When profit becomes the purpose, people become invisible.
But when purpose leads, the paycheck becomes a blessing, not the goal.
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