Another wrinkle to the problem with that gatekeeping structure is that it is so prone to bias against women and people of color, who are much more likely to be undiagnosed and ignored or dismissed.
> a 2000 study[0] published in The New England Journal of Medicine found that women are seven times more likely than men to be misdiagnosed and discharged in the middle of having a heart attack.
> women with chronic pain conditions are more likely to be wrongly diagnosed with mental health conditions than men and prescribed psychotropic drugs, as doctors dismiss their symptoms as hysterics [1].
> racial bias in pain perception is associated with racial bias in pain treatment recommendations... Black Americans are systematically undertreated for pain relative to white Americans.
(To contextualize the votes: I think you were getting down voted for assuming that sexual and racial bias don’t exist. You assumed the statement mentioning that such biases existed was inaccurate and wanted explanation as to how. However, per my other comment, the biases exist and contribute to significant negative health outcomes for the disadvantaged groups.)
