Doctors know more than insurance companies

How did our society allow the middlemen of all institutions to become more important than the experts? I am speaking in the broad terms of insurance companies, boards of the medical fields, and education fields.

Medical doctors train for years to understand to the best of their ability how the body works and how to treat the maladies that disease it. They read scores of studies, put in hours of practice along the sides of authority figures at hospital bedsides, medical procedure rooms, surgery room tables. Doctors read and analyze X-rays, medical reports, etc., to ensure the best next steps for their patients. Yes, issues come up now and then, but for the most part a medical doctor knows more about the patient and what he or she needs than an insurance company worker. Why do we, the public, along with the doctors’ offices, have to wrestle with the insurance company as to what is necessary for the patient’s well-being?

Why does the insurance company have the right to make the final decision about what tests or procedures or medicines are best for the patient? I, for one, believe the medical experts have the best knowledge for those decisions!

In another major profession, similar situations are happening.

Educators are expected to accept whatever mandates are handed down from Boards of Education, Boards of Regents and Municipalities. Never or rarely are they consulted as to how or what would be the best way to handle schedules, curriculum changes or contract expectations.

Central office administrators are also making the major decisions for educators when administrators are not the people educating students. Boards and administrators are too far removed from the classrooms and classwork to make all the major decisions. Educators must be the first line of decision-makers along with the other personnel.

This is true for the cities’ school systems as well as the universities. Why would the key members, the classroom educators, not be consulted and heard is beyond my comprehension. The key to an educated populace is to put the decisions to fund education before other public utilities.

When is the public going to stand together and make their voices heard and change these situations?

Deborah L. Hocking, Danbury