As the person who filled out these medical intake forms, I’ve seen firsthand how the healthcare industry has crept into aspects of our personal lives that simply don’t matter to them. The purpose of these forms should be clear-cut: to gather relevant medical information so healthcare providers can offer the best care possible. But instead, these forms are packed with intrusive, irrelevant questions that serve no real purpose other than to poke around in our private lives.
Language? We’re in America.
Take, for example, the question asking for your preferred language. We’re in the United States, and the form is in English. Do I need to spell it out? If someone’s filling out the form, they clearly understand English. Asking this question is not about being considerate; it’s just a pointless exercise in political correctness. It’s time we stop pretending this has any impact on patient care and cut the nonsense.
Why Do They Need to Know All This?
The medical community now seems obsessed with gathering information on every aspect of our identity—legal sex, gender identity, pronouns, sexual orientation—you name it, they want to know it. What happened to asking about symptoms, medical history, and allergies? Instead, we’re answering questions that have zero impact on diagnosing a sinus infection or treating a broken bone. This isn’t about healthcare anymore; it’s about ticking boxes and following social trends.
Sexual Orientation – None of Your Business!
Does it matter if I’m straight, gay, or somewhere in between when I’m just here for a flu shot? No, it doesn’t. Yet, these forms pry into personal areas that don’t concern the medical field at all. It’s intrusive, unnecessary, and frankly none of their business. If this information is relevant, it should come up naturally in a conversation with the doctor—not be demanded on a standard form.
Enough with the Overreach
The medical community’s job is to help us stay healthy, not to catalogue every detail of our personal lives. These questions are overstepping boundaries and need to be reined in. It’s one thing to want to know if a patient has a history of heart disease; it’s another to demand answers about who they sleep with or how they identify. Let’s focus on what matters—actual medical care—and leave the rest of it out of the exam room.
It’s time we push back against this intrusive overreach. Medical care should be about diagnosing and treating our health issues, not policing our personal lives. Let’s get back to basics and stop making patients feel like they’re filling out a government survey just to see a doctor.
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