Scott Becker - The “Doctors Should Focus on Prevention” Argument is Hogwash 8-8-25

In this episode, Scott Becker breaks down the flawed narrative that doctors are to blame for poor preventive health outcomes. He calls out the unrealistic expectations placed on physicians and emphasizes personal responsibility and the urgent need for more doctors.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is Scott Becker with the Becker's healthcare
let me do that again. Three, two, one.
This is Scott Becker with the Becker's healthcare
podcast.
Today's discussion is
doctors should focus more on preventive care hogwash.
So here's the discussion today. There was a
lot of talk on x

(00:21):
that states that if doctors spent more time
on wellness versus sick care, we would be
better off.
So this is the concept that doctor somehow
or another should be in charge of
people being healthier and weller
versus simply,
you know, taking care of things when people
have trouble. And, of course, there's a lot
to be said for that, and the country

(00:42):
as a whole ought to spend a lot
more efforts on wellness and preventive care. I'm
not sure how far it would go, but
the idea is a is a is a
good one.
But to blame doctors for people's
sickness and lack of health and well-being,
I think, is ludicrous.
To give you a sense of numbers,
we have around 900,000

(01:04):
practicing doctors in this country and about 345,000,000
people.
The doctors we have
are desperately needed to keep up with patient
needs, and I'll go a step further on
this.
The concept that doctors are the problem with
wellness,
and if the doctors would just focus on
wellness, we'd all be better off,

(01:24):
I think it's such a ludicrous comment that
it's almost worth not responding to, but I
will.
Here are a couple thoughts.
You have to question. Are doctors causing us
to eat too much, to drink too much,
to not exercise, to eat cookies? I I
could assure you, I know what I'm supposed
to do. And now I'm saying whatever advice
I get from my doctor,
I often overeat at dinner more than I

(01:46):
should. And that's not on the doctor, that's
on me. And I think it's true for
most of us. Of course, this isn't the
doctor's problem or the doctor's fault. It doesn't
mean that our surprise, they gotta deal with
all of us that don't have the great
willpower and preventive efforts we should have.
But but this all is a narrative
that I think you get played out. You're
gonna you see it played out some by
the RFKs of the world. You see it

(02:08):
some played out by others in the world.
But it's an error that distracts from the
real issue that we have, which is you
all need a lot more doctors very, very
badly.
That's our discussion today on this concept of,
you know, doctors who focus on prevention,
hogwash.
Thank you for listening to today's version of
the Becker's HealthCare podcast.