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I agree with you for the most part. However, I think medical technology costing a lot of money shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. Look at all the manpower behind these machines - R&D, engineers, medical professionals, etc. That expertise and labor doesn't come cheap - nor should it IMHO.
I was responding to a poster who felt that anyone could operate these machines and that the doctors were keeping the technology from the masses in order to keep the prices high.
I was responding to a poster who felt that anyone could operate these machines and that the doctors were keeping the technology from the masses in order to keep the prices high.
I'm sorry I worded that post badly. Thanks for the correction.
I disagree. I think there are a good amount of candidates in our high schools and colleges who would be interested in medicine if it wasn't for the high risk of being sued and the high cost of nearly a decade of education.
I agree with you, I also disagree that there are limited brains out there who could tackle the medical field. Not to mention that these types of careers are geared (maybe unintentionally) to those who are better off and that's a hindrance. It's difficult for those without money to afford what it takes to make it through med school. Even getting to that point becomes difficult without funds for added classes, and transportation. Working part time while in med school is very difficult.
There could be a good group of the population we are missing who would make great doctors. Since we have the need, and a mandated health Insurance (care) system then we should be proposing debt free educations for those willing to accept medicare and Obamacare. At least for the first twenty years of their career.
I think a lot of people who aren't use to making two or three hundred thousand a year would easily get their school paid for in trade for serving the community they are use to living around. I think a lot would be just as good or better in their positions.
1. and 2. Well, it's still a barrier. A different one from the one I thought it was, but a barrier nonetheless. You're still giving a class of people exclusive right to make money from a certain set of technologies. Again, what if we were doing it with computers? What if only people with CS degrees were allowed to charge people for using computers, and the rest of us had to pay them? Sure, you might argue computers are different - anyone can use them safely. But that's not what people thought before. Why can't medical devices and technologies be made so user-friendly that anyone can use them without risk or danger? Why can't there be a Steve Jobs of the medical device/medtech industry that makes medical technology as easy to use, safe, accessible, and easy to work with by the average person as computers and consumer electronics are today? If such a company were created, should it be allowed to operate? Or would people be forced to pay a doctor every time someone wanted to use the machine?
3. Get someone else to read and interpret it for me? Interpreting medical images is a skill that can be taught to most people. Like any skill, people need experience, time, and money to develop it.
1. Do you want the pilot on your next flight to be someone with training and a license, or not?
2. Do you think it is a good idea to have individuals with no training in engineering constructing bridges and buildings?
3. Do you hire elementary school children to wire your house?
There is a reason that physicians are given "special access" to medical technology and procedures- it takes years of training. Would you submit to having a cardiac bypass surgery by someone without a degree?
The fantasy you are describing is a world in which any and every medical device, drug, and surgical intervention is so simple that a child could practice medicine with no complications. That world does not exist. Complications occur, even in the hands of those with superlative training.
No one ever died by logging on to the internet. In contrast, many have died from botched medical errors which have occurred at the hands of those with poor training. Until we can develop "Dr. McCoy" devices, in which one waves a device over a patient with no tissue trespass and cures them, medicine needs to be in the hands of experts.
Another thing. A lot of doctors aren't taking the affordable care act insurance. You can't find a place to use this insurance. I pay cash, and a lot of it, just to see the doctor regardless of paying into the ACA. Why? There aren't any doctors who take it.
As a layman, I might not know the in's and out's of being a doctor but as a consumer of their service I'd love to know why they are allowed to make so many mistakes, and refuse to take insurance that I'm FORCED by mandate to pay for. I'm listening. Crickets.
As a primary care docs, I wouldn't know or care if any one patient was on an Obamacare plan or otherwise. They all pay about the same, and cause us about the same in hassle time.
In our neck of the woods, more than likely a doc doesn't take an Obamacare plan because they have been excluded by the plans narrow doctor panel. This is a cost saving move by the plan. Fewer docs, more difficult access for the patient because of limited appointment slots and possibly distance. And the plans can cherry pick docs that provide care in a cheaper fashion. For the good or bad of the patients.
Most docs don't want their personal and professionally liberties encroach on by Gov't. They would like to be free in choosing patients and plans.
I disagree. I think there are a good amount of candidates in our high schools and colleges who would be interested in medicine if it wasn't for the high risk of being sued and the high cost of nearly a decade of education.
Pre-med and med students aren't so very fearful of MP, but that possibility could enter in into their final training and specialty destination. The cost is certainly a problem, and IMO needs more public funding solutions.
I agree with you, I also disagree that there are limited brains out there who could tackle the medical field. Not to mention that these types of careers are geared (maybe unintentionally) to those who are better off and that's a hindrance. It's difficult for those without money to afford what it takes to make it through med school. Even getting to that point becomes difficult without funds for added classes, and transportation. Working part time while in med school is very difficult.
There could be a good group of the population we are missing who would make great doctors. Since we have the need, and a mandated health Insurance (care) system then we should be proposing debt free educations for those willing to accept medicare and Obamacare. At least for the first twenty years of their career.
I think a lot of people who aren't use to making two or three hundred thousand a year would easily get their school paid for in trade for serving the community they are use to living around. I think a lot would be just as good or better in their positions.
I have no doubts that many qualified are left out of the process. But at this time we have a bottle neck in residency training program slots. As we are already working on more med school slots, that needs fixing if we want more docs.
1. Do you want the pilot on your next flight to be someone with training and a license, or not?
2. Do you think it is a good idea to have individuals with no training in engineering constructing bridges and buildings?
3. Do you hire elementary school children to wire your house?
There is a reason that physicians are given "special access" to medical technology and procedures- it takes years of training. Would you submit to having a cardiac bypass surgery by someone without a degree?
The fantasy you are describing is a world in which any and every medical device, drug, and surgical intervention is so simple that a child could practice medicine with no complications. That world does not exist. Complications occur, even in the hands of those with superlative training.
No one ever died by logging on to the internet. In contrast, many have died from botched medical errors which have occurred at the hands of those with poor training. Until we can develop "Dr. McCoy" devices, in which one waves a device over a patient with no tissue trespass and cures them, medicine needs to be in the hands of experts.
Asymmetry of information can be incredibly high in medical encounters. Higher when dealing with seriously acute and complex chronic patients and conditions.
This is the same mantra the teachers pushed. Teachers are now overpaid and with tenure have little compulsion to actually perform. They simply collect their dime, wait until they can retire on 90% of full pay and call it a life.
Doctors and hospitals should publish their rates. They should provide a strict rate across the board. If they raise their rates above the competition... guess what... they go under just like anyone else in a business would.
Yes, first thing we need are published prices on everything they want to charge.
Insurance is there so people lose the ability to see the real cost, and also become less price sensitive.
That way the insurance companies and hospitals can scam us all they want, having us signed their "guarantee to pay" financial form, while those who don't pay at all get free passes watlz in and out, and we get the privilage of filling out 500 pages of forms and being schackled to pay for astronomical prices thrown at us.
The doctors are simply highly paid foolish henchmen of the big money club: insurance, pharma, hospitals etc. companies.
The doctors, with high student debt, are enslaved and driven to practice specialty medicine rather than really help healing people because of the pay-per-service system.
It's one big complex scheme that the big corporations create to fleece Americans.
You cannot simply "increase the supply of doctors." These are doctors, not general laborers. Doctors (like leaders) are born, not made. At most, perhaps 0.26% to 0.30% of the population is even capable of being a doctor. The number of doctors who are qualified or capable of teaching other doctors is even less. No matter what, there will always be a "shortage" of doctors.
" Shortage" is a geo issue.
Some areas seem to have a surplus of providers, including specialists while other areas, not so much.
The ratio of healthcare providers to the local population is one of the factors that determines health insurance premiums.
The health of the local population, as measured by number and type of claims, is the most significant factor.
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