“Half of the modern drugs could well be
thrown out of the window, except that the
birds might eat them.”
--Dr. Martin Henry Fischer
Thousands of years ago, in ancient China,
medicine was practiced quite opposite to the way it
is practiced today. In those days, every household
put a vase outside its door. As the healer made his
daily rounds through the houses of the village,
he would look into each vase. If there was a coin
inside it, he took the coin and went on his way,
knowing that everyone in the house was healthy.
If the vase was empty, the healer knew that
someone inside was ill. He would enter and treat
the patient to the best of his ability. When the sick
person was well again, the daily payment of a coin
resumed.
This was a simple method that guaranteed
the healer’s interest in the health of his patients,
for his payments continued as long as the patient
was well. To maximize his profits, the healer
needed the people under his supervision to
stay healthy as much of the time as possible. For
this reason, the healer would walk around the
village in his free time, advise people on healthy
living, and reprimand those who were negligent.
If a person was stubborn and refused to lead a
wholesome way of life, the healer would exclude
him from his rounds and refuse him medical attention
when he needed it.
This simple method guaranteed that both patient
and healer had a vested interest in keeping
healthy—a stark difference from our present approach
to medicine.
In modern medicine, a physician’s salary is
comprised of how many patients are treated daily,
how many commissions are given by drug manufacturers,
and how high the doctor’s rates are for
services. Under private medicine, wealthier patients
pay more for better doctors, which produces
a skew in the quality of care available to those in
lower income brackets.
In addition, today’s system penalizes a physician
whose patients are healthy. In fact, the practitioner
could theoretically starve to death or get a
pink slip precisely because he or she has succeeded
in keeping people healthy!
The drug companies, which we hail whenever
they announce a new drug or treatment for an illness,
are trapped in that same circle. If they produced
a drug that actually made people well, they
would go bankrupt. Hence, it is in their interest
that we remain alive and unwell. The whole system—
hospitals, drug companies, doctors, nurses,
and caretakers—actually benefits from perpetuating
our ill health. It is the only way healthcare workers
can sustain themselves.
But this reality is not the fault of any one person.
Doctors are not evil people, at least no more
than you and I. They are trapped in a system that
has been built to maximize profit instead of health
and well-being. As a result, patients—ordinary people—
must protect themselves by purchasing costly
health insurance and depend on the judicial system
in cases of malpractice.
And what evildoer has created this broken system?
It is our own ignorance of nature. Indeed, the
healthcare system is perhaps where the symptoms of
seeing only one half of reality manifest most acutely.
Michael Laitman
