Editorial from rural Vermont, where hospitals are having a hard time attracting doctors:
Reimburse doctors for some or all of their education expenses as soon as they become doctors, and pay a hefty percentage of their malpractice insurance, based on their income. Simple, effective, immediate. The benefits would be enormous throughout the system.And the amount it would cost the government, compared to the billions and billions we spend (or waste) on health care is not even a teaspoon. Why don’t we do this?
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{ 11 comments }
Because it is tantamount to rewarding extortion. The providers have set up a good system for themselves in which the supply of those that can legally provide healthcare services is limited secondary to their collusion with government. This is then exacerbated by the anti-competitive supply side restrictions on the domestic production of providers. There is no moral basis for rewarding this scheme. Locales such as rural Vermont (or any other locale) should be able to bypass scope of practice limitations to bring in those that will provide healthcare services without concomitant extortion.
Allowing private physicians (not under the direct employee of government) would be equivalent to letting private mercenaries set up shop, paying for all of their bills and then hoping that they provide adequate police services. If the providers want the cake of free handouts to cover their expenses then their autonomy is the cost.
After all the posts extolling the virtuousness of physicians, the truth comes out.
It’s about the money.
At least you guys can finally admit it.
Next you will let the drug rep samoles / bribes influence what you prescribe.
“It’s about the money.
At least you guys can finally admit it.”
No one ever said it wasn’t.
Please, there have been far too many posts on the inherent goodness of physicians v. all the rest of us who work for a living.
Not to mention the sanctimonious drivel about how all proposals, from increased Medicare reimbursements to tort reform, are all about improving things “for the patients” and how “patients lose” when these things don’t happen.
You non-physicians are just jealous. We have the money, the prestige, and we even get the chicks.
If only you guys had the brains and determination to go to medical school perhaps you wouldn’t be so bitter. Society has to have both winners and losers.
I thought you all worked 200 hours a week and didn’t make enough to pay your malpractice coverage, much less your rent?
Where are you finding time to score w/ all the babes?
“You non-physicians are just jealous. We have the money, the prestige, and we even get the chicks.”
So much for the lie of being “killed” by malpractice insurance premiums. By the way, this is exactly what the idolaters need to here. Even they will eventually realize that the providers are in the art of medicine for no one but themselves and do no harm applies solely to the pocketbooks and social status of the provider class.
Thats the funny thing about medicine, you can choose to have a great life or a miserable life. Many are suffering, many are thriving- it comes down to making the right choices. Medicine is a path to success, not a guarantee. Done right, being a doc will lead to money, prestige and the chicks, done wrong and it will bring misery.
Those suffering will complain bitterly, those thriving will quietly count their blessings. Just like most things in life.
“they will eventually realize that the providers are in the art of medicine for no one but themselves and do no harm applies solely to the pocketbooks and social status of the provider class.”
I find this post curious. I think you are looking for a saint, not a physician. Docs are human beings, just like you. We want to help people, but we also want to be financially successful. What makes you think that there are 500,000 kindly altruists in our capitalist society, that will happily put the needs of others over the needs of themselves and their families?
As with any human needs, there is always a balance of what is best for the individual over duty to others. Docs fight to achieve this balance everyday, some more successfully than others. The granting of an MD does not change human desires for material things- and it is foolhardy for you to even think this could be true.
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