Tuesday, September 02, 20084
"If you don't care to have pity for physicians, fine"
The public may have little sympathy for "overpaid" physicians and some think they deserve a pay cut.
That's fine.
But how does that really solve the reality of the situation?
Medical students graduate with a mortgage-sized school debt see specialist salaries several times more than their primary care counterparts. Predictably, this leads to a specialist boom.
Motivated undergrads read about declining physician salaries in the face of a worsening practice environment, and subsequently steer clear of medicine:
People can criticize "high" physician salaries all they want, but how does that help the new Medicare patient desperately trying to find a primary care physician?
That's fine.
But how does that really solve the reality of the situation?
Medical students graduate with a mortgage-sized school debt see specialist salaries several times more than their primary care counterparts. Predictably, this leads to a specialist boom.
Motivated undergrads read about declining physician salaries in the face of a worsening practice environment, and subsequently steer clear of medicine:
The simple fact is that fewer and fewer people will apply for medical schools and enter a field where the price for education is high, the process is incredibly long and difficult, and when you get out you get the privilege of working excessive hours with many all-nighters, high stress, high liability, personal health risks, expensive insurance costs, and diminishing compensation!The opinion or fact that American physicians are more highly compensated than their European counterparts is completely irrelevant to the situation at hand.
People can criticize "high" physician salaries all they want, but how does that help the new Medicare patient desperately trying to find a primary care physician?
Comments
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PharmacistMike
With the mental gymnastics and intestinal fortitude it takes to get through med school/residency and the lifestyle that being a physician entails one should at least be paid very well for it. Unfortunately, physicians do not seem to get paid that well anymore and it certainly would push people away from the profession. Not that money is everything but it does help make up for the other issues.
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Anonymous
OK, so we buy your claim that you're underpaid (not that you're not paid well, because you are, just that it's not enough). So where do we get more money to pay you? More taxes?
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Family Med Resident
I think there will always be plenty of people vying for medical school slots. I don't know the numbers now, but when I was applying 8 years ago there was 1 slot for every 3 applicants. New medical schools are being built and established schools are expanding their class size in (what I think is a futile) effort to produce more primary care providers, so I imagine there are now more slots to satisfy applicants. However, even if the number of applicants dropped by, say, 30%, schools would still probably be turning down a good 40% of applicants. The difference will be that more of them have access to an American education and less will have to go to Mexican or Caribbean schools, which theoretically could lead to even less people going to primary care as FMGs typically "settle" for family medicine slots because they can't get in anywhere else.
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Anonymous
i think that medicare needs to pay healthcare costs and not chiropractic care and not the ridiculous markup on durable medical equipment. personally how much money does medicare pay for wheelchairs and diabetic supplies, because those companies advertise each evening on TV so clearly there is some profit in there. I don't think there needs to be that much profit for that kind of stuff.
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