Breaking Bad -A Healthcare Professional’s Take

Breaking Bad was incredible. Who knew Bryan Cranston was one of the greatest actors of our time? I’ve never seen a TV show or movie where such complex emotions were delivered so convincingly. Following the fall of Walter White was an intense whirlwind experience. Shakespeare would be proud.

As anyone who has seen the first episode knows, this whole thing gets started because of some health care cost issues. Walter has insurance, but he can’t see the top doctors that can potentially save his life because they are not on his plan. This forces him to have some out of pocket expenses. A similar situation happens later with his brother-in-law, Hank. He can’t receive the best care because his insurance doesn’t cover it. While many people that think it shouldn’t be this way, that everyone should be treated equally when it comes to health care, it just isn’t that way right now in our country.

Why is this true? The reasons are complex. The business of health care is complex. Combining the best interests of patients, the best interests of providers in the health care industry, and the best interests of the health insurance industry is a difficult problem to solve. Patients want the best possible care at the lowest possible cost, and rightfully so. Health care providers want to be fairly compensated for their time, expertise, and expenses. Insurance companies want to be fairly compensated for the piece of mind they provide and the risks they take on. Getting all three parties to agree on the best way to handle this problem, where everyone stands to lose some and everyone stands to benefit some, is a task of extreme difficulty.

Back to Breaking Bad. With his “new found wealth”, Walter White was able to seek what he and his family believed to be a better quality of health care than what his insurance plan was able to cover. His cancer goes into remission, presumably from his top notch care, and he keeps on living his wild and crazy life.

But the whole health care system is to blame, right? If the doctors just reduced the fees or if the insurance company provided out of network benefits for the top quality care that Walter needed, none of the crystal meth lab antics and deaths of innocent people would have happened, right? The inefficiency and unfairness of the health care system drove Walt to madness!

While this makes for great TV, I believe there’s a bit more good in the real world than in the Breaking Bad world! Doctors want to take care of patients. Insurance companies want happy customers that are pleased with their products and services. Patients want quality care from doctors they trust and as few financial surprises related to health as possible. Everyone in this little triangle isn’t an evil, uncaring monster! In health care, in insurance, and in the patient population, we’re all human beings doing the best we can with what we have. The reality is, health care costs money, and higher end health services cost more than most insurance companies can possibly afford to pay. The economic realities that apply to all other businesses apply to health care, dental care, and health/dental insurance as well.

So what does this show say about our society? Haha, I’m just a dentist, not a film expert or a sociologist or a psychiatrist! I’m not sure I’m the best person to answer this question, but I did learn this: the underlying fear that our access to life saving health care is tied to our bank accounts is a fear that many people in our country face. A fictional story about what one man did when faced head on with this circumstance captured the imagination of millions. The circumstance, which could seemingly happen to any of us, drove him to a very dark place is his life, ultimately destroying everything he had. The fear that we cannot afford health care is real in America, and it dictates how we view ourselves, the health care industry, the insurance industry, and the world around us.

Fear led Walter White to action. The reality is, fear as it relates to health care and health care costs leads most people to something almost as bad: inaction. From my perspective, it is often the case that patients don’t seek preventative care out of fear of costs, which results in more costly emergency care.

Perhaps one day the health care system will be completely different and not resemble anything like what it resembles today -the system that led Walter White to become a meth cook! I don’t know what the future holds, but I hope it’s better care for patients, an environment where restrictions on providing the best possible care to all patients don’t exist, and insurance companies can simplify processes, provide better coverage that is easy to understand, and be a useful resource for all patients.

Share this Article