How To Navigate the Healthcare System

Without Losing Ourselves

Photo by Conor Luddy on Unsplash

Even though my three eye surgeries went very well and were successful, I remain leery of doctors and hospitals. Given several bad experiences over the years and after what we went through as my husband struggled with dementia, I’ve lost some trust in them.

The healthcare system claims to be our "friend"—a support structure for well-being—providing tools, expertise, and safety nets necessary to maintain health, treat illness, and improve quality of life. Theoretically, its purpose is to serve and protect us. Yet it often seems to act in adversarial ways for a variety of reasons.

It’s widely recognized.

The U.S. healthcare system often appears to work against a patient's interests by prioritizing profit over care, leading to unsustainable costs, high medical debt, and surprise billing.

It frequently denies or delays coverage, limits access based on employment status, focuses on treating illness rather than prevention, and seems increasingly profit-driven rather than patient-centered.

I’m finding.

We must be our own advocates. That means understanding insurance, organizing medical records, building a relationship with our primary care provider, preparing for visits with questions and documentation, using websites, knowing when to use urgent care or the emergency room, and clarifying costs upfront.

• Certainly, there may be times when I need medical care. If and when those times arise, I want to take responsibility for myself rather than being solely controlled by external forces.

Agency

I’m really talking about personal agency - the belief in our ability to steer our own lives rather than be driven by circumstances - making choices and acting accordingly.

In the healthcare system, that means being involved in our care, making decisions, asking questions, and advocating for ourselves - in other words, co-owning our health process.

We build that agency when we:

• Ask questions to ensure we completely understand diagnoses, tests, and medications.

• Address concerns immediately when we feel them.

• Use patient advocates, bring a trusted person to appointments, and keep accurate records.

• Practice patience, pleasantness, and persistence.

• Find alternative perspectives if our needs aren’t met.

We can apply agency in various ways as we navigate the healthcare system.

• Moving from passive recipient to active partner, co-owning treatment decisions.

• Researching conditions, options, risks, and benefits to make empowered decisions.

• Clearly explaining our needs, preferences, and concerns to medical providers.

• Understanding medical information and consciously agreeing to treatment plans.

We might benefit from developing agency by:

• Lowering the chance of unnecessary tests and procedures.

• Enhancing confidence, reducing stress, and increasing resilience.

• Allowing ourselves to generate trust and mutual respect with healthcare providers.

In essence, it’s about shifting our mindset from letting the system totally dictate our care to taking responsibility for our own health.

Maybe it’s unrealistic, but I would want my doctor or hospital setting to:

• Have a holistic approach to healthcare and recognize the mind-body connection.

• Use a patient-provider team approach.

• Clarify the purposes and side effects of prescribed medications.

• Look for root causes of symptoms rather than simply treating them.

• Provide information about lifestyle changes that reduce posssible dependence on prescription medications.

My question for you is this: Does your current personal medical strategy reflect what matters most to you?

I love sharing the lessons I’ve learned over the years of life and caregiving with as many people as possible, and, more than anything, I want to continue expanding our community of readers.

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Dr. Janice Walton is a psychologist, a widow, a mother, a grandmother, a great-grandmother, and a writer. She’s been writing a newsletter on Substack for five years and is publishing a book based on the articles.