For the past few weeks of school, we've been taking an Insurance class. Since medical assistants quite often have to deal, either directly or indirectly, with these agencies, we need to know about them. Since the class started, my classmates and I have been horrified beyond words by numerous cases of what pretty much amounts to justified murder. The insurance companies have teams of doctors and nurses who evaluate every case in front of them, looking for reasons to deny them. This includes lifesaving operations. The insurance companies don't see people as people, they see them as money lost, or money saved. They place $100,000 above a person's life in value. This is all bad enough, but I aspire to be a doctor someday, and I am ultimately answerable to these companies. If I had to perform a lifesaving surgery in a hospital, and face it, surgeries of that kind are performed nowhere else, and the insurance company denied coverage, I would not be allowed by the hospital to perform that surgery. Even if I waived my fee as the surgeon, the patient would still have 60-75% of their charges for the procedure left, meaning that they would still be SOL, which translates to dead in this circumstance.

In light of all of this, I have to reevaluate where exactly I want to be in 10-15 years. I don't think I can practice in the US. My conscience wouldn't be able to bear letting people die just because a greedy corporation wants them to. Therefore, I'll probably be looking to practice in a country that has socialized healthcare already established. The UK would be my first choice, and Oxford is such a nice school.

Anyways, that ends my rant on insurance for now.