Modern Healthcare as Legalism

Being a Chiropractor in a very medicine oriented Health care paradigm has proven to be challenging. Amidst these challenges are the constant use of the label ”Fake Doctor”, the animosity in response to trying to help others, or the fact that spending hours educating patients is utterly useless against the few seconds an MD rebuts our efforts. But it isn’t all horrible. There are some unforeseen advantages in being pushed to the outside of an industry. One of these is clear vision of the industry as a whole, “Seeing the forest through the trees.”

Still being a toddler in experiencing what it is like to be a healthcare professional I have been shown something unsightly and increasingly uncomfortable. When observing the big picture of healthcare I felt something I’ve felt before. I describe it as a wrenching in my abdomen, which I can only explain as a response to biting into something and being forced to swallow against my will. I felt this when I was younger, in of all places--church.

I remember unveiling ugliness or evil in what I felt should be the most unlikely of places, and as I began to peel back the layers I began see a core so wrong that it could only be linked to money, power, and greed. As uncomfortable as it might seem I ask you be open to reading some examples of how our beloved healthcare system uses that same tactics to spread misinformation, blind, and enslave us as a legalistic religion.

Any religion has common attributes that make it such. These include, but aren’t limited to doctrine, deity(s), practices, and prophets. These attributes are usually glued together with a larger idea or belief such as faith. The current health paradigm uses science as its doctrine in the form of research, text, and past experiences. Their acting deity(s) are the doctors that administer treatment and care for their followers. The prophets that spread information and evolve the religion are the pharmaceutical companies. And surprisingly what is holding this all together is faith in the system, science, and doctors.

Legalism is a theory in theology which takes the abiding of God’s law or the law developed by man in religion to be the most important aspect of religion. For this theory to hold any water you have to omit large chunks of the bible (doctrine) and focus on minor details taken out of context. This type of institution also thrives on fear using it as a tool to convert followers and receive compensation. In return they offer salvation if the followers abide by rules regarding practices such as giving money, confessing, and following with faith the leaders appointed to them.

To bring together the picture we circle back to the healthcare system. They electively omit truths out of their doctrine by: selecting certain research articles to shape their ideas; segmenting their view of the body and focusing on minor details, missing the big picture as a whole; and silencing potential prophets with the threat of exclusion. They promise cures and salvation through their prophets claims saying that drugs are the only way. They use fear that if you don’t use their medicine and try other things you will die or get sick. The reverence for doctors is nothing short of discipleship. Without looking into the doctrine themselves the followers blindly through faith follow and abide by their deity’s rules and practices. The followers continue to pay into this religion for the belief that their salvation lie in devotion.

In the past this theory has only proven to make money, confuse people, and turn others away. In a way, I’m almost proud to be called a “Fake Doctor” in comparison to being a “Real One”. And seeing this wouldn’t be possible if I weren’t on the outside. So I guess it really isn’t so bad taking some minor ridicule every now and then as long as I can continue to see the big picture.