It's not specific to the US. It's the problem of doctors seeing every particular patient for literally minutes and having zero incentive to dig deeper. 90% of the problems are of the nature that is either covered by standard remedies or will pass by itself with time. If you have one of the 10%, you need to have good luck to encounter an extra-ordinary doctor that would take personal interest in your problem, usually while all incentives point to "give the standard answer and move on" behavior.
I once had extended work done at a dentist. It took a few hours, some of which involved sitting around and waiting for things to happen.
It gave me a new perspective on that kind of work. From my/our point of view, I was the most important person in the room and my problems really really matter.
From the doctor or dentists POV, I'm one a long long list of people they're seeing that day. It's a health care production line, and even if they have the inclination to be equally caring about everyone - which is a rare quality, because a good medical professionals are only in it for the money - they just don't have the time.
This is not an excuse unprofessional behaviour. But it made me realise that self-advocacy works because you're asking - maybe demanding - more than the production line gives you by default.
Also, medicine is incredibly complicated. And the research is often very low quality.
And that's not taking into account Big Pharma trying to tout its products, whether or not they're suitable or effective.
The most depressing thing recently has been the professional response to Covid. In the UK countless doctors have aggressively given up masking, even in settings with immunocompromised patients.
It's really made it obvious that some doctors are just in it for the money, a good few are phoning it in, surprisingly many have quite irrational beliefs, and the caring expert professionals are much rarer than they should be.
While there's some truth here, medical diagnosis and treatment can be really hard.
People have weird habits, weird diets, are exposed to weird chemicals in small amounts over extended periods of time, etc. There are all kinds of genetic factors where something can be really minor for most people and debilitating for others. There are all kinds or problems or diseases that people can have, and there can be weird combinations that interact or provide an overall confusing array of symptoms. And it's all mixed up with the patient's brain, which may be exacerbating or compensating in all kinds of ways (psychologically or through behaviors that the patient develops).
