The Pandemic Project - Volume 3

The Murder of Medicine: How Capitalism Has Changed the Healthcare Industry Sarah Baker It is a running joke throughout literature and entertainment that every mother wants her daughter to marry a doctor.

He may be old, or rude, or a snob, but in the words of Leela from T.V.’s Futurama, “but [he’s] a doctor. A doctor, honey.” A doctor equals intelligence, status, wealth. Mothers wanted their daughters to marry someone who would provide and care for them. Who better than a doctor? Money may not be able to buy happiness, but hey, it is better to cry in a Cadillac than on a bus, right? However, the medical industry isn’t the salary-churning machine the media portrays it to be. While it does pay more than the average job, the necessary educational requirements accumulate an exponentially higher amount of debt, not to mention the stress of medical school can take literal years off a person’s life. As author Bruce Feiler wrote in an article for Psychology Today, “The stress interns endure is so intense, Sen finds, that it speeds up the aging of body cells by about six years… At the cellular level, these people are coming in as 26-year-olds and finishing the year as 32-year-olds” (qtd. in Feiler 9). This is something people can never regain, nor can any amount of money recompense. Exceptional doctors don’t go into this field to get rich; they become doctors because they want to heal. They want to help. Their passion for others combined with scientific curiosity draws them into medicine.

One of the most well-known physicians is Hippocrates, the “Father of Medicine.” In fact, the modern-day Hippocratic Oath, which new doctors recite at graduation and uphold throughout their careers, was named in honor of him (Smith). While 10