THE ILLUSION OF CARE

We have long been told to trust the medical establishment, to believe that doctors and nurses, with their stethoscopes and white coats, stand as paragons of virtue. Indeed, many individual practitioners do sincerely devote their lives to healing the sick. But individuals alone, no matter how compassionate, struggle futilely within an institutional framework that undermines their noblest intentions at every turn. Healthcare as it currently stands is not designed to keep people healthy. It is designed to maintain a perpetual market for healthcare services, pharmaceuticals, and insurance policies. Our society brandishes statistics: improved survival rates for certain cancers, the advent of robotic surgeries, targeted gene therapies, and so forth. Yet behind these numbers, carefully chosen by public relations departments and government spokesmen, lurks a...