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You have identified another huge problem. In America anyway, becoming a doctor is seen not only as being prestigious but also being wealthy. When you couple that with high student loans and long years of study and internships, the pressure to make enormous sums of money is great.
Its bad enough that medicine is not exactly an easy profession, not to mention one that demands a stomach of steel, but is also long and expensive to train for, thereby potentially weeding out many candidates who could well be capable.
It seems to me that a country who genuinely cares about the well being of its citizens would launch a massive long term program of giving medical students a free education up to a point, say, up to the point of being a GP. This way, said country could get its abundance of doctors, and thereby alleviate the queue problem, as well as obviate the need for the doctors to have to pay anything back.
Of course, this implies that the leadership of the country cares about things other than money and power.
You got that right about the pressures of being a doctor. One of my relatives (uncle) was one of those hot shot surgeons who is always on-call 24/7. Due to pressures in his job he unfortunately took huge amounts of sleeping pills and died (suicide). His sister (aunt), also a hot shot surgeon, thereafter decided to downgrade to working in family clinics with 'lesser' stress ... but still gets the occasional visits in the courthouse. I believe the medical profession in the U.S. has one of the highest suicide rates.
With regards to the expensive higher education in the U.S., I read a Time Magazine article about that way back in the mid-90's. The U.S. gov't spent a great deal amount of $$$ in education up until Pres. Richard Nixon. Pres. Nixon cut funding in higher education thus schools need the extra $$$ to compensate the lost gov't revenues. The result is higher tuition and bigger classes.
Btw, Michael Moore blamed Nixon for the higher medical cost in the U.S. ... I forgot what his reasons are... he was being interviewed at the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Nixon is the gift that keeps on giving.
Last edited by visitor21; 12-28-2012 at 08:44 AM..
I'm curious about the health care system in your country. Are you required by law to have health insurance? Do you pay an exaggerated amount just for a routine checkup? Do you have choices with doctors and hospitals? Tell me more.
I'm originally from middle east, it's totally free back there in the GCC countries (Gulf Cooperation Council).
It seems to me that a country who genuinely cares about the well being of its citizens would launch a massive long term program of giving medical students a free education up to a point, say, up to the point of being a GP. This way, said country could get its abundance of doctors, and thereby alleviate the queue problem, as well as obviate the need for the doctors to have to pay anything back.
I wish it were that simple. I recall many years back there was a lot of discussion here in Canada about doctors moving to the U.S. to work because they could earn more money there. So Americans benefited from the expensive Canadian education/training, which of course was indirectly partially subsidized by the Canadian taxpayer as all education is. I haven't heard that type of discussion for quite a while though. I did a Google search though and found this recent article: How bad is the brain drain?
However, to generalize, any country who offers medical students a free education up to the point of being a GP would have to be concerned about another country benefiting. It's easy to say that the doctor would have to pay back the financial benefits received but I suspect that wouldn't work well in practice.
You have identified another huge problem. In America anyway, becoming a doctor is seen not only as being prestigious but also being wealthy. When you couple that with high student loans and long years of study and internships, the pressure to make enormous sums of money is great.
US should really limit the number of hours worked. I'd rather be cut by some puny Russian surgeon than a great American, who has a high chance of experiencing a burnout. Scary.
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It seems to me that a country who genuinely cares about the well being of its citizens would launch a massive long term program of giving medical students a free education up to a point, say, up to the point of being a GP.
All education should be free up to a certain point. After all, education is one of the primary human needs. And, of course, modern society needs a lot of educated people - so, sooner or later, they repay their debt to society. A win-win situation.
This may also lead to higher education standards overall, since schools won't care about students pockets.
Soviet higher education (completely free ride) comes in mind - it could afford to be tough.
However, to generalize, any country who offers medical students a free education up to the point of being a GP would have to be concerned about another country benefiting. It's easy to say that the doctor would have to pay back the financial benefits received but I suspect that wouldn't work well in practice.
In Soviet Union emigrants had to pay the cost of higher education - up to a dozen average annual salaries.
This has caused some human rights protests in the West, and US used it to pass the Jackson–Vanik amendment, which embargoed the SU.
Today Russians are generally against this (the law is no longer in place since 1980's), because they believe that education is paid for by their parents' taxes, not by their own future payments. Makes sense.
Since we are in the topic of the cost of higher education (which is related to training future medical employees), some older friend told me that California's higher education is free up until Reagan became governor of California. Any older Cali folks , please confirm.
My understanding under one of Obama's college loan reforms, if a student is employed to some gov't service for 10 years after graduation, his/her student loan will be forgiven. Teachers? Doctor's? maybe? I got this info from one of my nephews so I'm still vague about this.
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Originally Posted by object704
... US should really limit the number of hours worked. I'd rather be cut by some puny Russian surgeon than a great American, who has a high chance of experiencing a burnout. Scary.
...
I agree. Doctors are human regardless of country of origin. There are cases of doctors in the U.S. leaving surgical tools in a patient after surgery.
My understanding under one of Obama's college loan reforms, if a student is employed to some gov't service for 10 years after graduation, his/her student loan will be forgiven.
In 2007, Congress created the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program to encourage individuals to enter and continue to work full-time in public service jobs. Under this program, borrowers may qualify for forgiveness of the remaining balance due on their eligible federal student loans after they have made 120 payments on those loans under certain repayment plans while employed full time by certain public service employers.
This is idiocity. People's work should serve people, not the government. And private jobs serve people just as well.
It's puzzling to see Obama trying to implement some things from the Soviet state capitalism, because... well, that Soviet system was meant to be a war-time measure, subject to elimination afterwards, because of its dramatic shortcomings.
And just like Soviet conservatives, he's doing it in the name of socialism. But state capitalism is not a socialist form. Not at all.
Since we are in the topic of the cost of higher education (which is related to training future medical employees), some older friend told me that California's higher education is free up until Reagan became governor of California. Any older Cali folks , please confirm.
My father was an Air Force lifer. He was stationed at Travis AFB (near Vacaville) in 1963 and I, as a high school student, was ecstatic to learn that I would be considered a resident and could get my first two years of college free. Unfortunately, he got transfered to Washington State in the MIDDLE of my senior year. I was no longer eligible for those two years of free college.
When it changed or who changed it, I dont know. But at the time, I believed California was the greatest state in the nation in which to live.
Had to join the Marine Corps and go to Viet Nam so that I could get VA benefits when I returned home.
But at least I got that college education.
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Free Jr College education in California
