A worthwhile book to read on this topic is Outlive by Peter Attia (MD). The core premise is that American healthcare focuses far too much on treating problems after they’re extremely severe. It is would be cheaper and healthier to invest more into conservative & preventative care, trying to prevent or minimize problems early in life before they become incredibly dangerous and expensive/difficult/impossible to treat.

I have a close friend who works in conservative care, and it’s astonishing what they see. For example, someone went to a number of specialists and doctors about a throat condition where they really struggled swallowing. They even had to swallow a radioactive pill to do some kind of imaging. Unnecessary exposure, and an expensive process to go through, and ultimately went exactly nowhere.

Meanwhile, it was a simple musculoskeletal issue which my friend was able to resolve in a single visit with absolutely no risk to the patient.

Medical schools need to stop producing MDs who reach for pills as the first line of defense without trying to root cause issues. Do you really need addictive pain killers, or maybe some PT, exercise, massage, etc. to help resolve your pain.