Interesting read:

http://www.coasttocoastam.com/guests/1065.html

Much of what Tim Bolen says about health care choices in the U.S., and
what is happening with health care in the U.S. of A I have to agree
with.  The 5 minute doctor visits---never get to the root of the
problem ----I think  the "Discount Warehouse Pricing  Mentality" when
it comes to healthcare, and cheapness is a disgrace to the once highly
esteemed world of medical professionals.  I remember hearing comments,
like "He's a doctor," from ladies pushing their babies down the street
and pointing at someone on the other side of the street.  The kids in
grammar school in the 50's and 60's whose fathers were doctors or
dentists -- were known as DK's, in the same sense that fathers that
were ministers offspring were called PK's.    Those were the days that
doctors actually spent time with patients and physicals were more than
5-10 minutes.    Heathcare has indeed changed --some points for the
good, and some points for the not so good.

For the average person in a hurry for a diagnosis at a doctor's office
so they can get in and out, prescribed some kind of medicine would
appear to be the undereducated lot of consumers.  I had to laugh at a
colleague a number of years ago; she had a lunch box, and in her
lunchbox were so many pills---I used to tell her she spent most of
her lunch time swallowing pills instead of eating lunch, and the sad
part was she couldn't tell me what half of the pills she was
swallowing were for.  I said, "didn't your doctor tell you why he
prescribed these?"    Well, he was in a hurry, one of his patients
kept him a half an hour, and by the time he got to me he was
backlogged.  I would have sat there and got the answers I needed
before letting him/her out of the door.  Every consumer has the right
to know what's going on with their health!

I think some of the comments that have been directed towards Tim Bolen
here in this newsgroup come from the fact that he believes in choice
of health care, whether it be alternative health choices or
traditional conventional medicine.  For some, there is no choice; for
some it appears that they do not want others to have a choice, and for
some, like myself, we want more in our medical diagnosis than what the
5 minutes has to offer.   I have to agree with some of those that post
here, his bedside manner sometimes leaves one wondering, "who was that
masked man?" when he comes in and out of here.....he isn't for the
faint of heart....but in my opinion, he has a good heart....he would
appear to care that choice of health care should be left up to the
consumer.