Dr. Lasko discusses his book The Great Billion Dollar Medical Swindle.

This episode is from the WNYC archives. It may contain language which is no longer politically or socially appropriate.

Dr. Lasko discusses his book The Great Billion Dollar Medical Swindle.

Walter James Miller introduces the book, The Great Billion Dollar Medical Swindle, by comparing its insights to Joseph Heller’s portrayal of the medical profession in the novel Catch-22, through the character Doc Daneeka, who makes decisions based solely on his own welfare.

The author, Keith Alan Lasko, M.D., explains he grew up idolizing the medical profession but was disheartened when he saw doctors prescribing unnecessary treatments to gain income.

Dr. Lasko says most doctors are governed by the profit motive, adding,
“It is so easy for a doctor to make money by putting a patient in the hospital.” He cites statistics from consumer advocate Ralph Nader to demonstrate the high volume of unnecessary surgeries in the United States. Dr. Lasko says that a system of medicine based on the patient’s (or the government’s) ability to pay is simply wrong. He accuses the American Medical Association of propagandizing against socialized medicine in ways that cover up the defects of the American system, especially the substandard care provided to the poor and anyone else unable to pay.

Dr. Lasko notes that the full Oath of Hippocrates for physicians actually prescribes “a code of silence” among doctors that keeps patients in the dark. He says he provoked the ire of the head of one medical society for speaking out against abuses in the medical system. He says that since his book was published, colleagues have ceased to refer patients to him and one tried to run him over in a hospital parking lot.

Dr. Lasko says the competition to get into medical school fosters rampant cheating and an ethic of winner-takes-all among those students who are successful. Miller notes that his book describes medical societies as akin to a local mafia that acts to protect local territories.

To reform the profession, Dr. Lasko says, the United States must take the profit motive out of medicine. He adds that physicians also recommend unnecessary care, such as excessive x-rays, as a form of “defensive medicine” to avoid lawsuits.

Miller asks whether it is true that doctors are unhappy in Great Britain. Dr. Lasko replies that doctors there are unhappy that they are unable to earn more money, but the public is highly satisfied and resists attempts to end socialized medicine. The two share anecdotes from their own families to illustrate the willingness of physicians to prescribe unnecessary medical care.

Lasko says his expose of the medical profession was refused by 40 publishers. He wonders if the public is too apathetic to care about the problems he describes.

WNYC archives id: 72837