It’s an unmitigated disaster. One hundred million pain patients. Millions addicted to opioids, hundreds of thousands dead. Pain patients abruptly cut off medication they’ve depended on, sometimes for decades, and offered nothing to replace it. Doctors, fearful of prosecution for overprescribing, dropping pain patients like hot potatoes. Pain patients unable to find any doctor that will treat them. Patients turning to heroin when they can’t get their prescription painkillers. Articles in prestigious medical journals suggesting that doctors stop asking patients about pain or offer them placebos. Reported suicides by pain patients who found life intolerable without their meds and threats by pain patients of more suicides.
How did we get to this terrible place? And how do we get out of it?
In the good old days, medical treatment was between a patient and their doctor. Doctors spent time with patients figuring out what was wrong and how to fix it. No one told doctors how long to spend with their patients. They billed for their time accordingly. When health insurance first came along, it was nonprofit. Medically necessary meant a doctor prescribed it and it was for a medical purpose.
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