The only point I was trying to make was people shouldn't go into medicine if all they want is money. [/B][/QUOTE]

Just a little food for thought. Why shouldn't people go into medicine motivated for financial reward? This presumption that it is wrong for what motivates a person strikes me as odd. Why is it OK for a businessman and community leader to be thought of as successful when he has wealth, but when it is a doctor, that somehow that is not right. It is a known fact it is the most expensive and costly profession to train for. And if it is so noble and important to CARE for people, then why do it at bargain basement prices (free)? There seems to be a contradiction in terms here. Caring for the sick is extremely important, yet no one thinks it should be compensated for at least at 1/5 the rate of a Porsche tune-up? Now people can site the cost of health care rising all they want, but the news flash here is that is the cost generated by staffing hospitals with expensive ER's and the cost of expensive medications and an aging population with a lot of medical problems. The physician costs have gone down on a per case basis across the boards for surgical disciplines for the last 28 plus years. And if you want to compare our cost to care for our population, you must take into account what country you are comparing to (Canada has the population of New York) and if the same services are even offered (like total joint replacements in England that the public system waits over a year for, and the dialysis that is not started on anyone over the age of sixty). Naive people assume that health care comparisons of diff't countries offer comparable services to their public.

For those of you that are world travelers, you already know this. But in every single developed country, there is either a separate system for people that want to pay for the "best", or like Switzerland, if you are in the ER without insurance, you have an additional penalty to pay that is NOT cheap. In Japan, the physicians get payed each time they set foot in the hospital to make rounds on their patients. And their reimbursements are all payed in full within 2 weeks. Now this is not anecdotal, I have friends that are physicians in each of these places that cannot believe what is going on in the US.

They tell me that they do not understand why the doctors have not left the US. They admit the training is the best in the world in the US (they trained here) but the work/payment is rediculous. They are amazed that one surgical fee pays for the work up, the counseling, the patient education and informed consent, the precerification, the surgery, the administration filing and billing to insurance, and all the post surgical care/office visits/phone calls/dressing changes/casts/medication refills for a three month global period. They mentioned that even the lawyers bill for phone calls. They wouldn't come back to the US for any amount of $ now because they have learned what it is like to care for a reasonable population that takes care of themselves and believes in personal responsibility (moderation/obesity, appreciation/lawsuit). Their current situations cannot compare to what they remember about the US population and the US system of treatment of physicians. My friend in England could not believe it when I told him that an arm of the FBI was investigating Medicare fraud against physicians. He told me to just opt out of the whole Medicare Medicaid system. He said it's not worth the hassle and the poor payment. He said, "you don't have to participate, just take care of people that have real insurance." I told him that although some doctors opt for this, others have even gone further and opted out of some insurance carrier's plans b/c the reimbursement is below cost--like Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina. I explained that my ER still needs to covered by Orthopaedics and that means I must participate with all the plans if I want to use the hospital's OR. They also could not believe that there is still no payment to doctors who are available on call to the ER for 24/7/365. And when they do come in to an emergency, they are often not paid at all.

These friends of mine now in England, Switzerland, and Japan, they think the US doctors are crazy. Not for not trying to change things, but for not just picking up and leaving the US like they did. I must admit it sounds tempting, but I really do love this country.

 

Because there is much more financial reward in other areas of work? Like starting your own business of some sort, and spending the 8 or so years building the business rather than medical school, residency, etc.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against doctors being paid very large sums of money, I just think one should not become a MD if their main reason for doing so is financial reward.

With that being said, If I have $200,000 in the bank, and my life is saved by a genius surgeon, and the bill comes out to 90k; i'll gladly give him $180,000 (leaving me something to work with to rebuild wealth)

edit: assuming I have no family to take care of.

 

a number of you said your wives are MDs - i was wondering if you regret marrying a doctor wife, b/c she's at work more than she's at home?? they work like 100hr/wk right? when do u have time to make babies and raise them???? LOL!!

 

Nope - my wife is a radiologist (mamographer to be exact) - great hours and no call. Only better field is derm for women and lifestyle. Most women MDs self-select into these fields (but that is a generalization)