It was not that long ago when it was heresy to talk about the consumer and healthcare in the same sentence. We, as consumers, did not help the situation. Many of us did not feel we knew that much about healthcare. It was generally something that was ‘done’ to us. As a result, we did not feel we had ‘standing’ or the ‘right’ to talk about it with the professionals to whom we entrusted our well-being. And a lot of the healthcare professionals whose advice we sought did not think we knew that much about it either. Some of them were quite happy keeping it that way. After all, the medical community had the language of science on its side. It was highly technical. It was obscure to most of us… and it was scary. So, many of us learned NOT to ask questions and basically do what we were told by the healthcare professionals we trusted.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com.