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Of course I support it. It would lower malpractice insurance and also the cost of health care in general. Either tort reform, or clear transparent access to exactly how much you can potentially sue your doctor for in the unlikely event of malpractice. This way you can easily assess your risk vs. reward.
Are you going to the doctor for help in the event of a health issue, or for the opportunity to cash in if you feel the doctor has erred?
The problem is that a single payor system, which will probably be the dominant "insurer" in the US, would probably bankrupt most practices. It certainly would bankrupt mine, as we are paid about 1/4 for medicare what we are paid for private insurance. If our reimbursement fell by that much, I and many other practices, would be paying to practice. That is why I am considering quitting a very busy practice and just working at the VA, as it would be alot easier and at least it would be cash positive as a salaried employee.
My MIL's family practitioner charges Medicare approx $209 for an OV of low complexity. Medicare reimburses $84 and change. Add to that her additional insurance for a total reimbursement of $106.
My husband's family practitioner charges $100 for an OV of low complexity. Our insurance reimburses $79 plus a $20 copay we lay out.
Writing only from our experience, someone is charging a lot more for a Medicare patient than for a non Medicare patient. It would make it appear that Medicare reimburses at a lower rate, but the reality is they are billing Medicare the max they are permitted by law.
This is a disingenuous response. Physicians can invest their money just like any other American. They take chances just like any other American. They are not guarateed a certain return on investment just because they are doctors. So it's false to assume that all doctors make a lot of money on the side through investments. I'm a physician and I invest.....FOR MY RETIREMENT just like every other American. I'm not investing money to make money to spend on sports cars. Just like any other American, there are doctors who make a lot of money investing and there are others who lost their savings
People that work in white collar business jobs are not spending 4 years in grad school, 5 years in residency, and take state licensing exams every 7 years to remain board certificed. White collar business people also don't pay malpractice insurance. There is no University of Phoenix on-line medical degree. Medical school is 4 years not 2 years like MBA programs. And MBA school is a joke compared to medical school, we actually have to study and take real exams. We don't get to do group projects and presentations for a grade.
When there's no health crisis, people tend to take this for granted. Yet when their mother or father is cardiac crisis, they suddenly want the best educated and most experienced physicians, cardiologists and surgeons.
I've worked for doctors, I am friends with many doctors from GPs to specialists. They deserve every cent they earn. I am not jealous of their lifestyles and possessions, they worked hard for them. I believe many people who have issues are envious of the image of a doctor who golfs on Wednesday, drives a high end luxury car, has a large house in an expensive area, and a wife whose kept in whatever she wishes. They fail to see the person who has to break the news to parents that their child has leukemia, that the donated lung didn't take, who gets paged during their child's school play for an emergency.
Many want to blame the doctors as soon as something goes wrong as opposed to blaming themselves for not taking better care of their body.
They don't want to see the pharmaceutical companies and their litigous friends and neighbors as a reason medical costs rise steadily. They complain that the office is always crowded yet continue to head in for every sniffle.
Doctors are worth everything they earn. Granted some are better than others and the patient load (or lack thereof) will ultimately determine what a doctor will earn.
Our govt subsidizes colleges too. And doctors know going in they are going to incur debt.
Subsidation costs money too. The government is not a magic ATM machine. It still is going to cost the same. Subsidizing it just makes other people pay for it instead of the person using the service. (the student)
Government subsidies of public universities has been dwindling for years. I know in our state, paying for a public university education is becoming harder and harder for middle class families. It's even worse on the graduate school level.
So what if future physicians/nurses/pharmacists know about how much debt they will be incurring in order to enter the profession that they choose. The point is that when we speak about how much US doctors should be paid, this has to enter into the equation. It sure doesn't in NHS countries because physicians/nurses and pharmacsists dont' have to worry about paying back their education loans. They have the great great privilege of BEING ABLE TO GO TO WORK AND EARN A LIVING RIGHT AWAY.
Sir, may I suggest that your way of thinking would be the total and complete doom of this country.
I can only thank the Good Lord that minds like yours are few and far between.
Capitalism has toppled every country its ever been infested in. Its really just a matter of how long it takes the slave class to stop fighting amongst themselves for scraps, and realize who is tossing the scraps.
Again - why should anyone be limited on how much they can make / earn? Why should anyone be limited in their ownership of assets? As an example - my husband and I own homes in 3 states. In your mind, is that wrong?
Abstractly, yes. Because you own 3 houses, someone else cant own, or is forced to pay a higher price. Land is a limited resource, and owning that resource is questionable.
However, in practice, I dont completely have a problem with personal assets, in so much as they arent used as capital assets, and are earned by only your own labor value. After all, if someone else wants to buy extra food with their labor, why cant you buy an extra house?
My issue comes when you are using that house for rental purposes. At that point, you are stealing labor value from someone else for use of your asset.
I think all education should be subsidized by the government with the costs recovered by a small percent of a person's income in addition to the "normal" progressive tax. That way a general practitioner could afford to take less money and a specialist would pay about what his specialty education cost.
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