Too busy training to, you know, treat patients:
The medical profession is not noted for effective lobbying on its own behalf. This probably principally derives from the fact that most men and women who pursue the grueling and academically challenging route of four years of college majoring in a science (not “public policy” or any other type of “basket-weaving” major), then four years of medical school, then years of very low pay/very long hours residency, do so primarily to educate for a career of helping people and for the humanitarian and intellectual challenge; lastly, if at all, for the income. Hence, their national professional organizations in large measure reflect that resultant disinterest in self-protection.
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{ 16 comments }
Saints, all of you. Not a greedy one in the bunch.
I almost choked on my coffee this morning reading this post. Was it intended to be written in jest? Clinical medicine continues to be one the most highly compensated lines of work according the National Bureau of Labor Statistics. As far as the claim of gallant egalitarianism… that might have worked with the average Joe sheep in the 1950s but more and more people are realizing that clinical medicine is no different than any other line of work and that its practitioners are no more worthy of adulation than any other person in any other line of work.
>”Clinical medicine continues to be one the most highly compensated lines of work according the National Bureau of Labor Statistics.”
So is major league baseball.
So is investment banking.
So is actuarial work.
So was being a secretary for an internet startup, if you were working for one in 1995, or so.
So what?
What does that say about the opportunity costs, the very high costs in time and educational fees that are required for entry into clinical medical practice? Nothing. A naked income statistic is simply misleading.
But maybe you knew that.
Nothing in this article suggested that physicians were saints. This article was merely saying that physicians are horrible at lobbying. What other job is projected to have their salary cut five percent each year (not including inflation). That is an example a poor lobbying force.
Americans are going to wake up one day and realize that their doctors are no longer the brightest or the best. Each one of my medical school classmates had the statistics to get into any top 20 law school or MBA program.
If physicians are so horrible at lobbying, why do they keep getting all this protection for their insurers passed?
Maybe they’re just really good at lobbying, but not real sharp on figuring out what to lobby for?
That would be considered the insurance lobby, not the physicians’ lobby.
I don’t see insurance executives at the marches on the state capitals or testifying for the legislation. Just physicians. Maybe it’s an animal farm situation and it’s become difficult to tell the difference anymore.
You make yourself sound ignorant when you talk about physicians and insurance companies as one. If you can’t see the insurance lobby at work then you need to look a little bit harder. Currently, in my area of the country 20,000 physicians are bringing a class action lawsuit against our largest insurance provider… Physicians and insurance companies are not one and the same…
Don’t worry, I’m aware of your strange relationship with the insurers. On one hand, you don’t trust the health insurers at all. On the other, the words of your liability carriers are gospel, and send you marching to the streets repeating them.
Basically, like everyone, you’re driven by the dollar. And if repeating the words of one part of the insurance industry allows you to make more money, so be it. Regardless of the hypocrisy of then filing suit yourselves to make more money off another part of the insurance industry.
so docs think they train so hard…
try becoming a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA), ~10yrs to pass 8 high level math tests, at avg pay until you understand the heart of the industry, and egalitarianism-> meaning no artificial scarcity, anyone can take those tests, get qualified, and compete in the market.
MDs are full of it, no lobbying ability, total nonsense!
heres hoping you feudal @#$# drive taxis one day !
Oh please! Get your head out of your a** before you suffocate. Better yet call a Yellow Cab outta here with your yellow journalism.
Medical training is still longer then your 10 year FSA plan in many cases.
Family Medicine = 11 years education with many hard exams. That is just a family doc! Until you are are physician it will be hard for you to talk about how hard physicians work or how hard their tests are without sounding uninformed…
The reason why anyone can try to join the FSA is because you have no impact on everyday lives and don’t kill people if you screw up…
PS… Math majors surfing medical boards comes across a little strange… maybe even jealous
“…more and more people are realizing that clinical medicine is no different than any other line of work and that its practitioners are no more worthy of adulation than any other person in any other line of work.”
Keep that in mind the next time you need open heart surgery….I’m sure the guy who fixes your car is JUST as qualified to do your bypass surgery as the average cardiothoracic surgeon, since there’s no DIFFERENCE between clinical medicine and other lines of work….
One has to wonder how many medical schools rejected Criminallopath before he/she finally gave up….
yeah go CARTEL
because i love living with totalitarianism !!
democracy, free markets, open competition, those are just buzzwords I pretend to believe in…
secretly i dream of being better than everyone else, and not having to compete or innovate to survive in a dynamic market
There you again anon. Tell me when is the last time you took a pay cut because of a federal entity’s decision. Most of us would love the free market approach. What a novel concept being fully payed for your work.
Hi,
in response to
“Keep that in mind the next time you need open heart surgery….I’m sure the guy who fixes your car is JUST as qualified to do your bypass surgery as the average cardiothoracic surgeon, since there’s no DIFFERENCE between clinical medicine and other lines of work….”
I think there is a very good question underlying this, and one that more and more Americans are going to be forced to confront given ageing/costs:
The question being in a medical situation for yourself or family what reassurances would allow you to trust the provider?
for our family, my father has had two overseas surgeries- the reassurance that we received was open access to surgeon records- ie success rates, discipline action, and number of actual surgeries/technique.
So would you trust a mechanic to perform surgery if they had the stats to back it up?
(or the flipside)
Would you trust a Harvard trained surgeon if they refused to provide their stats?
here is one possible market answer:
http://tinyurl.com/yhss2c
Further, I think this is a long overdue question, but due to successful lobbying one the market was not allowed to answer.
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