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Doctors have to spend many years in school followed by very hard training hours etc., and they come out of school with hundreds of thousands in debt and pay high insurance costs. If income decreases, it makes a difference. It's not like they just sign up to become a doctor; there is some cost-benefit analysis for most people's career choices.
Don't forget that "progressives" were the original cause of scarcity via licensure (in all states by 1900). The Trouble With Licensure
Medical licensure is a grant of government privilege. Like all such interventions, it harms consumers and would-be competitors. It is a cartelizing device incompatible with the free market. It ought to be abolished.
The Flexner Report of 1910 [listed how] legislatures closed non-AMA-approved medical schools. In 1906, there were 163 medical schools; in 1920, 85; in 1930, 76; and in 1944, 69. The relative number of physicians dropped 25%, but AMA membership zoomed almost 900%.
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Currently, there are est. 53 MD/MBA programs in the USA.
Total number of 4 year degree granting institutions: 2364
Public 4 year institutions: 612
Doctoral level publics: 166
Master's level publics: 282
Bac. only publics: 101
Other 4 year degree granting publics: 63
Remember, a license to practice medicine is not proof of skill or competency. But it does excuse the physician from criminal liability for injuring or killing his patient - as long as he follows "the rules".
I just don't get this line of thinking. The whole country will now have mediocre health care (at best) because 30 million were uninsured. Of that 30 million, many chose not to be insured but now won't have that choice.
Those with pre-existing conditions can no longer be denied...but that is if they can afford the premium. I go to the Dr. once a year for a physical and am in great health at 56 but my premiums are over $500 per month with a high deductable. I'm sure with a pre-existing condition it would be much higher.
This obama care mess does nothing to contain costs for citizens, at a price of over 1 trillion, will put more people on medicaid raising our state and federal taxes. Who in the H is benefitting from this? It sure isn't the citizens. This is a big payoff and the citizens will be hurt in the end with crappy medical for ALL.
Surely there is a better way to cover 30 million at less cost for everyone. This will make the whole process more bloated with paperwork and regulation..at more cost.
Especially when another one of our freedoms is being brushed aside.
I don't even think the reform itself is a problem, but the way healthcare has become a huge business, i.e. there are a lot of groups trying to make money on people's health or lack thereof. All those modern devices cost a fortune, same goes for pharmaceuticals and the whole bureaucracy... It is the same mess in a lot of industrialized countries.
No one's getting rich from praticing medicine now. Get real. If you had to work the hours I have, you'd think twice before you ever call anyone lazy again. Strike that. You wouldn't make it.
It's bad enough that you have to fill your days with ridiculous government paperwork and give more and more of your control away to the feds. And instead of getting to practice real medicine, you get to practice lawyer medicine thanks to the pack of wolves wandering around at your door all the time.
It's completely backwards, it does not service the patient, and it makes being a doctor absolutely NO FUN, regardless of how much you get paid. Throw worse wages into the mix, and it makes it worse.
Well then there is nothing to worry about because nothing will change then right? I stand by my assertation that healthcare reform won't result in a shortage of Dr's.
IF we see a problem it can be addressed by encouraging people to become Dr's with special progams to pay tuition or forgive loans. It's not like we've never done anything like that before.
The biggest expense to doctors is the insurance companies. They need armies of people to fill out massess of paperwork for different carriers. Many doctor offices have more people working on insurance work than helping patients. Its big business now. Don't blame it on govt. health care. Hours and hours are spent trying to get the insurance companies to pay.
So you'd think all these doctors would be running over each other to enroll those with Medicare and Medicaid so they can deal with the government instead of those evil insurance companies.
Remember, a license to practice medicine is not proof of skill or competency. But it does excuse the physician from criminal liability for injuring or killing his patient - as long as he follows "the rules".
you are right that a license to practice medicine is not proof of skill or competency, but it is a start. however it DOES NOT excuse a physician from liability, civil or criminal, for injuring or killing a patient. many doctors have been jailed and many more have lost their license to practice, and have had to pay out huge judgments against them.
what licensing does do though, is set a minimum standard for education, sets residency requirements, and requires continuing education to maintain the license.
Well then there is nothing to worry about because nothing will change then right? I stand by my assertation that healthcare reform won't result in a shortage of Dr's.
IF we see a problem it can be addressed by encouraging people to become Dr's with special progams to pay tuition or forgive loans. It's not like we've never done anything like that before.
How comforting that YOU stand by your assertion that Obamacare won't result in a shortage of Dr.'s. No offense, but I think I'll stick with the projections of the AAMC, Rand Institute, Institute of Medicine, etc.
As far as special programs, loan forgiveness, etc. All good ideas...which will take years to produce measurable results. Given that Obamacare will impact the market long before any of these programs will come to fruition, the bottom line equals significant shortages.
Another completely expected, poorly executed consequence of Obamacare.
I think it is a change that must be accommodated for. The answer to a physician shortage is not to let 30 million people go without insurance.
I think the best way to help our doctor shortage would be to make it take less time to become a doctor. I don't understand why doctors here in the US have to take years of business and liberal arts classes before they can apply to Med School.
I don't even think the reform itself is a problem, but the way healthcare has become a huge business, i.e. there are a lot of groups trying to make money on people's health or lack thereof. All those modern devices cost a fortune, same goes for pharmaceuticals and the whole bureaucracy... It is the same mess in a lot of industrialized countries.
Ok but what does Obamacare do to fix it? Seems to me that it's adding more bureaucracy to a system that is bloated already. By adding more layers of the same BS we aren't going to make it cheaper.
Of course people are trying to make money on peoples health. We all try to make money to survive. People sell food too. Doesn't mean they are bad.
Yes, modern devices cost money as well as pharmaceuticals. But when you need that device or that pill you want it to be available. Probably true in most industrialized countries.
If the problem is that there are all these "groups" trying to make money on health care then how is Obamacare dealing with that specific problem? Why did this need to be shoved through at a rediculous price when it doesn't address the real problem, but makes it worse.
Businesses do studies to try to find ways to streamline operations and make them MORE effective at less cost. This does neither IMO.
Well then there is nothing to worry about because nothing will change then right? I stand by my assertation that healthcare reform won't result in a shortage of Dr's.
IF we see a problem it can be addressed by encouraging people to become Dr's with special progams to pay tuition or forgive loans. It's not like we've never done anything like that before.
Drs are overworked now and aren't going to do even more work for less pay. They have lives and families too. Instead of offering tort reform as incentive to Drs, Obama says there may be studies to see if it would help.
Maybe he should have done studies to see how he could simplify the system and lower costs. Instead he chose the route of payoffs at taxpayer expense. Do you think health insurers are angry that they are being handed more customers on a platter that are forced to buy their product at whatever rate they chose to charge?
By the time YOU actually see the shortage it is too late. Regardless of what kind of incentives you give for more Drs, it still takes a decade of education before you see the results. And yes, we give incentives now and Drs won't think it's worth the lifestyle they will be forced to live with.
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