YES.

In pomo literary/cultural circles, they will pontificate endlessly about "textual authority" and "discursive hegemony" and such...but they will never look at the power relationships in "health" "care" narratives.

The body of medical documentation at this point is nothing but lies. But it gets used not only to make, document, and justify life-and-death decisions (in line with medical errors/malpractice being the leading cause of death in the US). It also gets used as a knowledge base for all sorts of medical and policy research, as though it records phenomena transparently and truthfully.

And yes, as you say, maintaining that control/sustaining and expanding that power is very much a currency/goal in itself. Well observed. Thanks.